Super Tai Galaxy
by TDWinnerforDinner
Summary: Tai's life has changed forever as the representatives of pollution make the Earth dangerous. Not only does he have to restore it but find his friends, representatives of green energy, rescue Sora and defeat the Pollution Squad with the help of Rosalina.
1. Chapter 1

Super Tai Galaxy

Disclaimer: I don't own any Digimon or Mario characters. They are the property of Bandai and Nintendo respectively. Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo are also responsible for bringing the digital monsters to life so I salute them.

Chapter 1: Crashing the party

It was a whole year since the digidestined defeated Apocalymon in the digital world and 6 months since the fall of Diaboromon. Now there is peace, it is what all true warriors like the digidestined strive for. In fact, there is a party at an elementary school in Tokyo but that will be covered later. For now, we go over to someone's house. Inside that house lives a young boy. At the age of 12, he wears brown shorts, a blue shirt with orange stars on the shoulders, white sneakers with blue and yellow patterns, white gloves and goggles on his forehead and has messy brown hair. It was he that led the digidestined to victory. He represented courage. He was none other than Tai Kamiya.

"Gee, it sure is boring around here" was all Tai could say, "I just wonder what Agumon is up to." So he goes on the internet where his digimon partner is from the last adventure. "Hi Tai," said Agumon, a small dinosaur-like digimon, "how's things". "Well I uh..," was basically all Tai could say until he saw the mail on the table where his mother put it. Tai looked through the mail and saw an invitation. Excited for this event, Tai told his partner on the net, "I'm going out tonight!" "Where are you heading, partner?" Agumon had to ask to which Tai replied, "I'm going to a party at my school. It's to celebrate one year after I met you and your buds." "Don't just bring nothing," said Agumon as if requesting something, "bring something spicy. Know what I mean?" "You," Tai sarcastically asked. "No, sushi with wasabi," Agumon corrected his partner.

The most ironic bit was that despite the fact that Tai's mother made questionable dishes; he managed to find a box full of sushi doused with wasabi. But before Tai could go, he had to tell his little sister, Kari who like him was a digidestined. Heck, they went together in the second half of the adventures in the digital world. "Hey Kari, wanna come to the party at the school," Tai asked his sister. Unfortunately, Kari said in response, "that sounds fun Tai but I'd rather stay home, I'm not into school parties." "Then how about a hug for luck," Tai said. "Okay," said Kari and they both hugged. At 6 p.m. Tai left after telling his mother where he was going and she approved it.

While Tai was heading to the party he met an old man. A rather peculiar old man. "Hi," was all Tai could say, "You're not Gennai are you?" "Heavens no," replied the old man, "I am Edward G. Don't ask what the 'G' stands for and it's not Gennai, whoever it is." With that Edward told Tai a story about his recent events which ended with, "and that is why my family has never used fossil fuels and why you shouldn't either. They are bad news young one." However, Tai disregarded all that as true and said, "sorry old man but I have a party to go to. See ya," before simply running off. "Kids these days," Edward added, "they never listen to the old folk or environmental activists."

At the school, a large tent was enclosing the sports area. In it was a food table, a DJ, a sakura tree decorated with 1000 paper cranes and many students. By the time Tai got there, his friend Matt with a green tank top, blue jeans, blonde hair, brown boots and brown gloves was the first to approach the brunette before saying, "Tai, what took you so long?" Tai replied with a short breath, "It's a long story involving an old man holding me up to tell me his life story. How's everyone else doing?" Matt, who was a digidestined representing friendship, responded, "Well Joe was trying to get some girls, Mimi is helping herself to punch, Izzy was as usual on his laptop and my dad told me to watch T.K. so he's right here." With those words, a small kid with, like his older brother Matt, blonde hair but he had no gloves and green shirt and hat. That was T.K. and he said, "Mum said the party would be good for me and told me to stay with Matt. Hey, where's Sora and Kari?" In response to that question, Tai said, "Kari didn't want to come and I don't know where Sora is." "Oh she told me that she was going to check out Facebook. She never left the house," was Matt's reply. Anyway, Tai put the sushi at the food table satisfied he made a contribution.

Meanwhile in outer space, an alien spaceship was heading towards the Earth. One of its occupants was saying, "soldiers! Send me to that planet!" But instead of landing safely in an escape pod, the mysterious figure was shot like a projectile straight towards Earth coincidentally landing on the sakura tree at the party leaving dust and a crater as well as mess and several freaked out kids. It was a big pile of coal with unconnected hands and began to sing:

_? : Well well well, what do we have here?_

_There's still life on this planet, oh dear._

_I'm going to claim this as my territory. Hahahahaha!_

_Tai: Hey you, yeah you. Who do you think you are?_

_Mimi: Oh my, he's ugly! What he needs is a spa._

_Tai: Scaring all the other kids won't make you king._

_Me and the digidestined will be fixing everything._

_?: That's what you think. Ha! But you couldn't be more wrong._

_Because this would be the last time you'll hear my pretty song._

_Ooh. Aah. Ooh. Aah. Ooh. Aah._

_I'm the king of coal._

_Tai: I've no idea of your bizarre schemes._

_But whatever it is, it might work only in your dreams._

_?: That's funny boy, it was a dream but now it's coming true._

_Because even my cohorts know the human race is through._

_Tai: Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh._

_I'm Tai Kamiya._

After that familiar music sequence, the mysterious figure made of coal began to talk, "Oh was I being rude? Okay, my name is Lord Anthrax and I'm claiming this planet as my own so I can take all of your coal or I'll kill you all." Tai tried reasoning with Anthrax by saying, "but coal is really important in my society. Take it away and we could face economic collapse." But Anthrax could not listen to reason so he said, "so that's how it's going to be huh? Hydros! Naphtha! Gasser! Trash this place!" With those words, a water containing robot, a blob of oil and a cloud of gas began scaring all the kids and leaving a huge mess. "This is your final warning boy," said Anthrax who got impatient, "hand over your coal and Sora and there will be consequences!" "Never," Tai yelled with valour, "and leave Sora out of this!" Having lost all patience, Anthrax blew his stack yelling, "THAT'S IT! EVERYONE DIES! I'M BURNING ALL THE COAL I HAVE ON BOARD TO TURN THIS PLACE INTO HECK! YOU THREE! AMBUSH THE PIONEERS! I'M GOING AFTER SORA MYSELF!"

While Hydros, Naphtha and Gasser left to ambush some mysterious pioneers, Tai fled the scene of the crime questioning his reaction to Edward as toxic fumes come crashing from above, "Maybe the old man was right. I have to save Sora before Anthrax takes her! Perhaps the digimon may help us."

Meanwhile on the alien ship, a nuclear powered robot named Reactor was waiting for Anthrax's permission to help out on the attack mission when one of his soldiers came in with sushi and said, "sir, I managed to sneak down to Pekopon past all of the violence to steal some sushi. Want some?" "No thanks," replied Reactor, "just put it in the fridge. I wish for some action."

Meanwhile at Sora's house, Sora was totally unaware of the whole ordeal when suddenly the ground shook, "What the…. AAH!" Anthrax has beaten Tai to Sora and now she was being kidnapped. By the time Tai got there, he was soon enough to enter the house but too late to actually save Sora. The house was being lifted into space. When Tai made it to Sora, she asked in fear, "Tai, why are you here? What's going on?" Tai began to say, "well you see some weirdo named Anthrax wanted to take you and," but before he could finish, Sora was being sucked into a suction tube that came out of the window. As Sora was being sucked into the alien ship, Tai didn't realise he was so high up above the ground until everything started to get sucked out the broken window.

Back in the ship, Anthrax approached Reactor saying, "I've done my bit for now. Go ahead and shoot the building I picked up if you want; there is a threat in there." "Finally, some action," Reactor said having been relieved of waiting. He went to the abducted house and shot 3 radioactive shots. The last thing Tai did was see the bullets coming towards him and say, "Oh sh-," before being blasted into space.

What happened to Tai? Is he going to regret ignoring Edward's advice? What happened to the human race? Who exactly is Anthrax? And who are the pioneers he mentioned? Found out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

By the way, the musical sequence was inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton and Earth being called Pekopon is a homage to Sgt. Frog by Mine Yoshizaki. I don't own any of that.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 2: Queen of the Stars

When Sora woke up, she found herself in a cell aboard the spaceship saying, "what happened? Where am I?" Just then a security guard walked past to check on Sora. "What happened to my friends," she asked. "Sorry to burst your bubble missy but I think your friends are dead," the guard replied, "for more information, please talk to Lord Anthrax in the throne room. Oh, I forgot. You Can't!" As soon as Sora found a key on the guard's waist, she said, "Look there's a Yoshi," and the guard turned around. He fell for it and Sora grabbed the key, opened the cell door and left while the guard wasn't watching. When the guard turned around, he saw that the cell was empty and said, "That crafty little twerp," in annoyance.

Meanwhile, on a random small planet, Tai was K.O.'Ed from Reactor's shots and lying on the grass. Then a small apricot coloured star-like being nudged the boy and he woke up. Upon waking, all Tai could see grass, menhirs, flowers and a rabbit with apricot ears which began saying, "are you lost?" "You could say that," said Tai, "because I don't really know where I am right now." "If you want answers," the rabbit added as two more with golden ears appeared, "then you have to catch us first." The rabbits disappeared, leaving Tai perplexed as he said, "well, I've gotta find them."

This task proved to be much easier than Tai had thought. "This planet is really small," Tai said confused as ever, "but at least there's less places to check." The first place he checked was a flower bed and as he did a gold eared rabbit started to run off. "Oh, no you don't," Tai shouted as he went after the rabbit. As it was caught, it turned into a golden star-like being and said, "Oh shoot! I should have gone for the pipe!" "What pipe," Tai had to ask when he saw a green pipe sticking out of the ground, "oh that one. This is starting to look like a Mario game." And so he looked inside it, found the other gold eared rabbit, caught it and see it transform into another star-like being which said in frustration, "I knew I should have hid in the crater when I had the chance!" "This should be easy," Tai began to say when found it and, from too much excitement, fell in. "Well this is the pits," said Tai now that he is stuck in the hole, "at least I found the last rabbit." Clearly ticked off for losing, the apricot eared rabbit reverted into its star-like form.

"You're not as stupid as I thought stranger," the star thing began saying, "Now I can tell you where you are but first we have got to get out of here." It was a lot of effort but eventually both Tai and the star thing made it out. "We are the Lumas," the apricot Luma continued saying, "a proud race of the cosmos. Our mother is the queen and you are at the gateway between Pekopon and outer space. Mum will explain more when you see her. Allow me to materialise the stone platform." From out of nowhere, a massive stone platform appeared on the other side of the planet from the menhirs. "Wow, thanks little guy," said Tai in a thanksgiving mode, "Now my questions will be answered."

When Tai got to the top, all he saw was an intensely beautiful woman standing in front of giant crystals. "Um, hi" Tai began to say when the woman started speaking. "I am Lady Rosalina, the queen of the stars," the woman started her speech, "I watch over the Lumas as they are my children. Speaking of which, I saw what you did Tai." "Wait, how did you know my name," Tai asked while once again confused, "and how did you know I was trying to save Sora? I didn't like it when people get kidnapped so I had to save her." "True, but that's not it," Rosalina continued, "You and several other children were the first to enter the digital world in millennia other than Gennai. Your actions were so phenomenal, that a Pekoponian company, Bandai, made a franchise dedicated to the digital mosnters and eventually the digidestined such as yourself."

"Wow, I didn't know we were that famous," said Tai. "Oh, it was a global phenomenon," Rosalina continued with no sign of stopping, "Anthrax just had to land on the wrong spot on your planet." "Wait, you know Anthrax? He's evil," Tai exclaimed. "That is true," Rosalina kept going, "we go back a long way. Now our paths have split; I chose the good path, he took the evil one. I have no idea exactly why he took coal from other planets but he is destroying them as a result. Pekopon, your home planet was his latest victim and thus its inhabitants have disappeared but your friends, you and a few others remain. Finding them requires the power of the lumas." Just then, the apricot luma from before appeared and fused with Tai giving him powers such as breathing in space, universal translation and many other cool powers. "Now that you have a wide plethora of powers, you don't need your digimon partner as I don't have internet access and neither will your friends. Your first task is to free my friend Edward. See me again when you have freed him. Goodbye, Tai."

After quite a long speech, Rosalina disappeared in a flash of light. Tai breathed a sigh of relief saying, "well at least the old man's alive. I should apologise for not heeding his wisdom. Where is he anyway?" "Use the launch star," the apricot luma said who is now a mere voice in Tai's head, "one spin will bring you closer to your goal." "Okay I will," said Tai as he, upon Luma's words, spun on the launch star after breaking the crystals containing it, taking him to another planet. As soon as he landed, he noted several unusual features, "This planet is also small but it's hollow and full of holes. What do I do here?" "Pick up the five orange triangle pieces," Luma started saying, "and don't fall in the holes. There is a black hole in the middle of this planet and falling into one is a death sentence." Thus Tai was extra careful in getting the first two pieces when a meteor threw Tai off guard and he was left hanging over the edge. Not wanting to give up or die, Tai pulled himself up and continued finding the triangle pieces. When all five were found they fused into a launch star which Tai used to get to the next planet.

This planet was metallic and covered in goombas. "This is starting to looking Mario now," Tai said surprised, "What now Luma?" "One of my friends is being held captive in a cage," Luma said, "one these goombas has a key. To kill one, jump on it. If you get hit and need more health, grab a coin." With that wisdom, Tai began jumping on goombas in hopes of finding a key. In the rare event he did get hit, Tai grabbed a coin to heal himself. When he did find the key, he took it to the cage to free the gold luma who said, "thank you for releasing me. Use the sling star to get closer to Edward." The sling star was like a launch star but smaller and more suited to small distance travel. Tai used it to go to another metallic planet. However, this one was larger, had a giant goomba and was orbited by small ships similar to Anthrax's mother ship except smaller and shot bullet bills.

"This doesn't look easy at all," Tai said as he dodged multiple bullet bills, "any ideas Luma?" "Keep dodging the bullet bills as you approach the giant goomba, then, as it's too big to jump on, spin next to it and kick it." Tai did as Luma said and spun at the giant goomba. It flipped over on contact and was kicked for the kill. Afterwards, Tai picked up the key and opened the cage containing another gold luma and a green warp pipe. "Thanks dude," said the luma, "if you want Edward, he's in that warp pipe." So Tai entered the warp pipe to go inside the planet.

Once inside the planet, Tai found Edward in a cage next to a machine that was draining a big star's energy and went up to the old man. "There you are old man," Tai said in an apologetic mode, "I'm sorry for ignoring you. Please forgive me." "Young boy there will be time for that later," Edward started saying, "but first, get me out of this cage!" "How," Tai asked. "There is no stereotypical key here. Turn all of the blue platforms on the floor yellow by stepping on them," Edward added, "you can do it because there is no one else here that can do the job and I need to pee!" Tai did as Edward said and stood on every blue button he can find on the planet's equator and around the machine. This caused the cage to open. "Finally, I'm free," Edward said in relief. "Can we go now," asked Tai. "Not now kid," Edward continued, "Anthrax's forces have captured me so I can give him a grand star for him to drain and then they imprisoned me. Now I must turn off the machine!" Edward entered the coordinates and the machine was offline and the grand star was free and shining a healthy gold colour. "Now we can go," said Edward. He and Tai exited the planet and since the power is out the miniships were off. Edward summoned a launch star for him and Tai to use and they left for outer space.

Where are Tai and Edward going? Will Sora make it to Anthrax's room? What is Anthrax planning? Where are the remaining humans? Where is Rosalina? What does the Earth look like now? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Mine Yoshizaki for Sgt. Frog references.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 3: Behind the Moon

On the other side of the Moon from the Earth, there was another small planet with a garden and a small house on it. A figure left his house to water the plants. He was a dromeosaur or in layman's terms a raptor covered in orange feathers except his feet and snout which had scales and his belly which was covered in yellow feathers. Anyway, the raptor-like figure was watering his garden when Anthrax's ship appeared and the familiar tune was playing:

_Anthrax: Well well well. What do we have here?_

_A raptor watering his garden. Ooh, I'm really scared._

_Shameful if anything happened. Hahahahaha!_

"Turn the music off sire," shouted a guard on board the ship, "it's getting on my nerves!" "Oh shut up you runt," Anthrax shouted as he was clearly annoyed, "I was just getting to the good part. Muahahahaha!" Soon after that, a noxious looking cloud hovered over the raptor's garden. Fearing acid rain, the raptor ran back inside the house as it started raining acid. When the raptor came outside again after the rain, he saw that his garden was an absolute wreck with a devastated look and yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Meanwhile inside the ship, Sora twisted and turned across the labyrinth of a ship which would have taken longer had she not looked at a map before ending up in Anthrax's sanctum. "Finally, I'm here," she said, "now I can talk to Anthrax." As soon as Sora saw Anthrax, she went up to him and asked, "Um excuse me, can you tell me where…" "Will you just shut up Sora," Anthrax yelled cutting Sora off, "can't you see I just wrecked someone's garden? And before you ask, I saw everything you did. I won't go into details but I kidnapped you for a reason. A reason I won't reveal until the time is right. Now meet my men!" Four figures appeared behind Anthrax: a turtle-like robot with water in him called Hydros; a big blob of crude oil called Naphtha; a tank-like robot with caterpillar tracks for legs, machine guns for arms and a nuclear reactor for a torso and head called Reactor and a big cloud of natural gas called Gasser. All these made Sora want to barf.

Meanwhile, in Near-Earth orbit, Tai, Edward and the grand star were heading towards, of all places, the Hubble Space Telescope which was not operational. Upon landing on the lid of its eye, the grand star fuses with the Hubble and turns one of its solar panels into a massive walkable platform complete with a portal, a garage and a diesel generator supplying the bare amount of energy needed for lumas to live. That was when Rosalina appeared and explained more details, "hello Tai and Edward, this is my new home. It's not much since we moved here. Unless we could find a satisfactory energy source, this pitiful excuse for a generator will have to do. Every century, me and my lumas visit Pekopon for its once luscious nature but now look at it." The Earth became a sad view, now it looks like Venus up close.

"This was Anthrax's doing because its inhabitants refused to give its coal supply. The same scenario happened for every planet he visited." Rosalina added. "You see, Tai," Edward began to explain while interrupting Rosalina, "this is why you should never have used fossil fuels in the first place, otherwise in the long term this could happen, but Anthrax artificially sped the process up so now you get the point, I mean what is this the 19th century?" "If I may finish Edward," Rosalina continued, "before meeting you in person, Anthrax destroyed my Comet Observatory just to tick me off. Exactly last year, Edward met me one of his random space trips for the first time. He explained his life on Pekopon and its most recent events which, as I said before, were your adventures. We became friends since then."

"That's nice madam," said Tai, "but seriously, where are my friends? Who are the other survivors?" "Apart from you and Sora, I don't know where the other digidestined are," Rosalina spoke on, "and the other survivors are known as the Earth Pioneers. Each represents a form of green energy and one of them is descended from Edward. However to not be a threat to Anthrax, he sent his men to capture them and so it is officially your sworn duty to rescue them, find your friends, stop Anthrax and restore Pekopon to its former glory. Oh, and by the way, Pekopon is what I call your planet when you call it Earth. For now we need power stars and you can find them in the portals. Good luck Tai."

As Rosalina entered the Hubble, Edward escorted Tai to the only portal that was working. Inside was an alternative dimension with a platform and a few doors. "Now before you go grasshopper," said Edward, "the only door that works here is the one leading to the Good Egg Galaxy on the other side of the moon from the Earth but new areas become unlocked as you collect power stars. They are like the grand star but smaller and weaker." "Okay but what's with the multi-coloured things on the floor," asked Tai. "Those are star bits," Edward explained, "They are a favourite food of the lumas and how a certain hermit gets by. Take them as they will help you. Good luck." After picking up the star bits, Tai entered the Good Egg Galaxy door.

Upon exit, Tai was on the wrecked garden planet from before and saw that the Moon was in view. "Wow, that's a big moon," said Tai in an astonished matter, "but whoever's looking after that garden must be a sore loser to let it rot." "I beg to differ," said a voice from inside the house, "it wasn't my fault. It was Anthrax's. There's limestone near the hose. Sprinkle it all over the place please." If Tai was going to get any power stars, he needs all the help he can get from whoever he finds even if it means doing chores for them. Once Tai had finished the job, the source of the voice showed itself. It was the raptor from before and it said, "Thanks stranger. This power star is yours." With that the raptor gave Tai a power star but he wasn't done talking, "it's a reward for your services. My name is Corey by the way. What's yours?" "It's Tai and I'm looking for more power stars," Tai said, "all will be explained later but do you know any other power stars around here?" "Well there's one on my father's grave," said Corey pointing at the brown planet with cracks in the distance, "but someone thought it was a good idea to lay an egg there. Get rid of it and the star's yours."

With those words, Tai looked for a launch star. It was on the other side of the planet which was considerably darker than the side with Corey. Tai looked through that side up its castle to find something new. "Okay, now what," Tai asked the Luma within him. "The blue stars are pull stars," Luma explained, "focus your sight on them to become attracted to them. Use them to reach the launch star above you." So Tai stared at the first pull star and he got pulled towards it. The same thing happened with the other pull stars until he got to the launch star. It took Tai to a peanut shaped planet where he collected orange star chips while dodging rolling boulders and sticky mud. This made another launch star which took him to an apple like planet that was being eaten by a black hole. Tai walked over what was left while avoid more boulders heading his way until he reached a warp pipe.

The warp pipe took Tai to a flat planet made entirely of buttons. As he made all the blue ones turn yellow, he made more buttons appear. "Why should these buttons be sad," Tai remarked, "they should be happy." When his efforts made the buttons flash green for harmony, another launch star appeared and took Tai to the brown planet mentioned earlier. He landed on the egg which made it crack and a tail with a bulb on the end come out. The egg started moving. "Okay Luma, I'm at the egg," said Tai, "how do I get rid of it?" "Kick the bulb," was all could say. Regardless, Tai kicked the bulb and, pulled by tension, it hit the egg. The eggshell shattered to reveal the Dino Piranha. When Dino Piranha saw Tai, instinct began telling it to eat him. Tai was running away from its bites when Luma said, "Keep kicking the bulb!" When Tai kicked the bulb and it hit Dino Piranha which made it angry. The monster was now faster but Tai kept kicking the bulb on the tail while picking up coins when he got bitten. After one final kick, Dino Piranha fainted releasing the power star. Tai grabbed it and returned to Corey.

"Okay, Corey it was a hard effort," Tai said, "are there any other power stars?" "Yes but it's over there," Corey replied pointing at a three legged bowl-like planet this time, "but you'll have to take a different route." So Tai searched the dark side of the planet again for another launch star. Instead of the main tower, Tai check the altar where he found more pull stars. They pull him towards the second launch star which took him to a pear-like planet. "Tai now is the time to collect star bits," said Luma. "Why, are you hungry?" asked Tai. "No, someone else may want some," Luma added. "Forget star bits, I could go for that planet," said Tai referring to the planet he's standing on. Anyway, Tai collected the star bits as Luma requested on the pear planet, the following plum planet and finally the Yoshi egg planet where a small being is found. It was only 60 centimetres tall, had short brown hair, purple sandals, blue shirt, brown shorts and sunglasses as well as a really big nose.

Tai approached the figure and asked, "Um excuse me do you know where the power star is?" "Yes," the small stranger replied, "but it'll cost you one hundred star bits. I'm famished." "Told you," said Luma to Tai as the latter gave up 100 star bits to the midget. "Thanks," said the midget, "this launch star will take you closer to where you want. Now leave me alone!" As the midget began eating, Tai used the launch star which was pink to get to the pill shaped planet. "Find a way in but be careful," said Luma, "the arrows on the walls indicate the path of gravity." When Tai made his way in, he walked alongside blue walls pointing downwards but when he got near the red walls pointing up, he fell upwards. "Boy Luma, you don't kid," said Tai after the sudden change of gravity got him by surprise, "this looks like something out of 'Alice in Wonderland'." Regardless, Tai made is way around the gravitational labyrinth to the launch star which unfortunately took him to miniships similar to the ones at the Gateway Galaxy.

"Uh, Luma," said Tai who got captured, "I think the guy conned us." "Silence maggot," shouted the guard near him, "you have some nerve to break in here!" The guard escorted Tai to a pool of lava to receive his punishment. "Now feel the wrath of King Kaliente!" As soon as the guard left, a giant octopus-like figure with a crown emerged from the lava. "Finally, some dinner," said the king, "but I can't eat raw meat. It must be cooked!" King Kaliente shot fire balls at Tai straight after saying that. "What do I do now Luma," asked Tai. "Hit the melons back," was all the Luma could say when Tai got struck by a fire ball. "That should get the germs off," said the king, "now to tenderise the dish!" King Kaliente shot a melon at Tai who whacked it back at the king. "Ouch," said the king when the melon hit him, "no matter, I'll try again." King Kaliente shot more fire balls but this time Tai dodged it and found refuge on the other side of the planet. "I don't think I can beat this guy," said Tai as he was wounded. "If you see yellow lights on the floor," Luma said, "chuck star bits at them."

Tai did as Luma said and threw a star bit at the light on the floor to get a coin. After healing, Tai went back to King Kaliente who was randomly spitting out melons. Tai managed to hit one back but, "Oh no, not this time," the king said as he deflected the melon back to Tai. Tai hit the melon again and this time it hit the king knocking his crown off. "Now you are really starting to tick me off," said King Kaliente in a furious mood, "now you will die!" The king summoned several lava bouncers to go after Tai which made things more difficult. Tai kept dodging the bouncers and the fire balls until he saw another melon and hit it. The king was continuously knocking back the melons leaving Tai exhausted. The boy finally managed to defeat the king by distracting him with a thrown star bit. As King Kaliente sank into the lava, he released a power star which Tai managed to grab.

When Tai returned to Corey, he said, "I found the power star. Are there anymore?" "No, that's it," replied Corey, "where do you live anyway?" "Let's just say I moved house but all will be explained when we get there. Let's go," Tai added then he and Corey took the launch star back to the Hubble.

How will Rosalina react when she sees Corey? Why does Corey live so close to Earth? Where are the other digidestined? Where are the Earth Pioneers? And who exactly is the midget? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Tim Burton for Nightmare before Christmas, Lewis Carroll for Alice in Wonderland and Mine Yoshizaki for Sgt. Frog references.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 4: The Other Digidestined

On board Anthrax's mothership, Anthrax was busy caressing all of the coal he managed to take from Earth. "Oh yes, sweet sweet coal," Anthrax was saying, "The more I collect, the closer I am to my goal." But his moments of happiness were cut short as a guard came into his quarters to tell bad news. "Sire, I have some bad news," said the guard, "reports say that King Kaliente has met his maker." "WHAT," Anthrax yelled in heavy disappointment, "HE WAS ONE OF MY LESSER YET POWERFUL MINIONS! WHO COULD HAVE THE GUTS TO COOK HIS GOOSE!" "We don't know the identity of the culprit other than he broke into one of our miniships," the guard continued, "but I managed to recover an artist's impression of him." Anthrax took the picture and scanned it. "So, it was that boy," Anthrax said as he calmed down, "I'll bet he's still after Sora. Speaking of which, I can't believe she could approach me and yet flee at the sight of my men. Must be strength in numbers." Anthrax continued to caress his pile of coal which, unlike him, was inanimate but very similar in appearance. Sora has not left the room; she kept spying on Anthrax and waiting for the right time to strike. "_I don't care how powerful this guy is,"_ she thought, "_but he's bound to have a weakness. When I find it, I may not need Biyomon, or maybe I do."_

Meanwhile on the Hubble, Corey was standing outside the eye area. "Oh shoot, the first minute he was enthusiastic, the next minute he's bawling his eyes out," said Corey, "I hope something cheers him up soon. I don't care what it is." "Tai is depressed that his family is gone," said Rosalina who was standing behind him. Corey turned around to face the queen of the stars and asked, "Then how do you explain his cheerful behaviour from before?" "He hid his depression just so he could focus on his mission," Rosalina added, "now he has the free time to let it all go." Corey was suddenly hit with a foul memory and said, "It was just like when I lost my father to Anthrax and the intense warming of my planet, Ignaria. My mum and siblings escaped with me but my dad stayed behind to fight Anthrax. Half an Ignarian year later, I moved out to live near Pekopon because it was beautiful to look at but to avoid a mass freak-out with its inhabitants, I stayed behind its moon to avoid detection. The Good Egg Galaxy was created for this reason and to hold my father's ashes once salvagers managed to bring them back up."

After several hours of endless crying, Tai finally came out a bit teary. "Tai, you're not alone," said Rosalina in a sympathetic mood, "Corey knows exactly how you feel but you must feel worse to be an orphan when Corey just has no father." "It's okay, I'm over it now," said Tai having calmed down, "at least I met some cool people, won a few power stars and turned King Kaliente into burnt sushi." As soon as Tai reverted to his old enthusiastic self he asked, "So, what's next on the agenda?" "Well since you collected another 3 power stars," Rosalina replied, "you may enter another world." "All right! Time for some action," Tai said with glee, "can I take Corey with me?" When Rosalina nodded in response, Edward escorted Tai and Corey to the portal to the other dimension that looks like a terrace. "Now Tai and Corey," Edward made his speech, "the Good Egg Galaxy was only a practice run compared to what you may encounter. There are other places that are much farther away and can only be reached with enough power stars as well as tougher." Edward then pointed at the door that was just unlocked; it was clear that there were power stars in there. "Good luck," was the last words Edward said before Tai and Corey disappeared into the door.

When they both reappeared, there was a new environment; it was a small forest with a big beehive at the rear and there were bees everywhere. One of the security bees approached Tai and Corey and said, "What are you doing here? What do you want?" There was no response from the two visitors until Tai said breaking the silence, "It's a long story but were only here for some power stars and, don't worry, they're not for evil purposes. I'm not like Anthrax." The bee responded, "Well I know of only two: her majesty will tell you where one of them is but the other is at the top of the observatory tower. I'll leave you alone now. Good day." With that the bee flew off then Tai told Corey his new plans, "I'll go and see the queen bee while you go the tower." "Fair enough," Corey said and the two went their separate ways.

Tai was heading to the hole in the cliff where he can see the beehive when he thought, "_The queen must live there. I must go." _There was one problem; the hole was too high to reach. "Okay Luma," said Tai clearly stuck, "what do I do now?" "Find a yellow striped mushroom," Luma answered, "and eat it." "How do you know it will help me," Tai asked worried, "as far as I know it may be poisonous?" But Luma did not answer and, despite his worries, looked for the mushroom. When he did find it, Tai picked it up and ate it expecting any effects. What did happen was he grew two antennae, four veined wings and two extra arms; he had practically become a bee. "Wow, this is awesome," exclaimed Tai in excitement, "but seriously, tell which mushrooms are safe to eat and which ones are not." "I know what you shouldn't eat," Luma said, "blue-capped mushrooms. They're trouble. Anyway, in your bee form, you can hover to greater heights than a normal jump. You can even cross large gaps but hover too long and you will lose power. Also, don't try using the sting under any circumstance, it's a death sentence." When Luma finally stopped talking, Tai tried his hovering skill to get in the otherwise elusive hole.

Meanwhile, Corey was side-tracked by collecting star bits when a piranha plant grabbed his basket without warning. "Oh, no you don't," Corey shouted trying to fight back the plant, "you're not having my lunch! Get your own when you have observation skills like… Oh dear, I forgot! The power star!" Remembering his objective, Corey dashed towards the cliff to find a way up it when he met the midget from the Good Egg Galaxy. "Who the heck are you," Corey asked the small figure. "None of your beeswax," the midget rudely responded. Then Corey realized something. "Wait a minute. You're that guy from the Yoshi Egg planet," he said, "What are you doing here?" The midget answered, "ever since King Kaliente got fried, some idiots from the small ships poached my food supply and my chances of survival were hard boiled. But I hatched a plan and scrambled over here to exploit a renewable source of food called honey." "Oh ha ha," said Corey sarcastically, "make egg references in front of a dinosaur why don't ya? Anyway how do I climb the observatory?" "Well I can open a bridge for you if you give me all of your star bits," the midget said, "the bees here don't like when they catch me taking honey." So Corey gave the small guy all of his star bits so the bridge would open. When it opened, Corey continued his venture up the observatory.

While Corey was climbing to the tower, Tai in his bee form managed to reach the bottom of the beehive but he needed to get to the top to see the queen. "Okay I have to get all the way up there," said Tai, "but it's too far to simply hover up there. Any ideas Luma?" "Do you see some honeycombs," replied Luma, "if you do, you can climb them in your bee form." With this knowledge, Tai climbed the honey comb all the way to the queen's throne room where she greeted him, "Good day visitor. I am the Queen Bee." "Hi, my name is Tai Kamiya of Earth," Tai greeted the queen back, "and I'm here for a power star." The queen responded in discovery, "There are more of you. Anyway, to find the power star, to have to relieve my itches. Especially get the bits with orange triangles." Realizing there is a launch star to be made; Tai began to approach the queen (which would have been slower if he walked in the honey) and began to pick out the star chips. When the launch star was formed, Tai asked the queen in curiosity, "before I go, what do you mean by 'more of me'?" "You'll see," said the queen, "it's where the power star is past the launch star. Now go." So Tai used the launch star to find the power star and something very surprising.

When Corey was at the tower, he began to admire the view. "Wow, the whole place looks nice from up here," he said, "I'll bet I can see more as well as the power star at the top. Hey wait a minute." Corey looked down to the platform at the top of the big tree below him. There were 5 figures, all the same species as Tai. One was a blonde with a green tank top, jeans, brown boots and gloves; another was rather short with red hair, orange shirt, purple shoes, green shorts, yellow gloves and a laptop; a third had long brown hair, a big pink hat, a necklace, red dress with brown belt, white and brown shoes and orange gloves; a fourth was tall with blue hair, glasses, a watch, a white shirt with cream vest, grey pants and red and white shoes with blue socks; the last was the smallest, with blonde hair, a green hat, a green long sleeved shirt, brown shorts and green shoes. They all surrounded a power star. "Those must be Tai's friends," Corey said before continuing up the observatory.

As he climbed, Corey came across some rather hostile bugs called mandibugs. They were easy enough for Corey to stomp on them but at the top (at last), there was a slightly larger one with a baby on its back. Corey kicked the baby ticking of the mother then stomped here for the power star. When he got down, he found Tai was already there. "What are you doing down here," Corey asked, "Did you call it quits?" "No dude," replied Tai as he revealed a power star in his hand, "I already found my star and my friends." So Tai began introducing his friends to Corey: the one with glasses was Joe Kido (he's the oldest), the one holding the laptop was Koushiro 'Izzy' Izumi, the one in the dress was Mimi Tachikawa, the small one was Takeru 'T.K.' Takaishi and the last one was Yamato 'Matt' Ishida who said, "This place is boring." Then it was Corey's turn to introduce himself, "Hello. My name is Corey and I come from the now inhospitable planet of Ignaria. Now I live near your planet with my father's ashes because…" "Oh, shut up Mr Dinosaur," Matt rudely interrupted, "I just want to go home." "We all do pal," Tai intervened, "but we can't. We'll find out the whole story once we go see Rosalina." But before anyone could ask who Rosalina is, the entire Honeyhive Galaxy got overrun with mandibugs.

The queen bee showed up in the chaos to announce the bad news, "I'm afraid we are under attack! What started as a minor pest has become a huge problem. I can only blame Bugaboom, the king of the mandibugs, living next door. He must be stopped! This is a three man mission." The queen, not a discriminating type, did not specify who would be regarded as 'men', especially since Corey was the only adult other than her, the midget or the other bees and he is not even human and Mimi was a girl. This left Tai with many options. "Is there a power star in this," Tai asked while the queen nodded in response, "Then I volunteer myself, Corey and Matt." "Oh no," said Matt in a disapproving tone, "I'm not doing this without Gabumon." "But, Matt, you don't need him. I got several power stars without Agumon and besides we're in this together." "Okay, but only because I want to get out of here ASAP." So the two boys plus Corey set off to defeat Bugaboom.

When they got to Bugaboom's tree-shaped planet, Matt brought something up, "Tai, why do you look like a bee?" "Because I ate a special mushroom," replied Tai, "and don't worry, my Luma guardian knows it's safe. All will be explained later." "Will you two shut up," shouted Corey annoyed by non-stop conversation, "It's driving me nuts! I'm sorry if there are acorns above me but…" Before Corey could finish, a giant beetle fell out of the tree crushing the feathered dinosaur. The beetle began its speech, "I am Bugaboom, king of the mandibugs. My brethren have travelled far and wide to expand our territory and we may have arrived at the right place." "No way sir," said Tai in valour and attempt of reason, "There are bee people living here. You can't just take what's theirs." "I take what I find; no excuses," said Bugaboom as he charged at the boys. Matt jumped out of the way but Tai hovered over Bugaboom and landed on him. "Stomp his back," was Luma's only advice but Tai did it anyway and Bugaboom collapsed as a result.

"So you have found my weakness eh," said Bugaboom clearly not defeated, "Let's see if you could get back on!" Bugaboom flung Tai off and began flying. This made trying to land on him more difficult. And the worst part is, he's dropping bombs. That's when Corey woke up from his K.O. and kicked away a bomb rolling towards Tai. "Thanks man," Tai thanked the injured Corey. "You are welcome," Corey said, "I'm a little worn so I'll just kick some bombs away." Tai got back up and kept trying to land on Bugaboom's back while Corey kicked bombs off the planet. When Tai did stomp on Bugaboom again, the beetle king fell again. "What, again," Bugaboom said who was clearly not happy, "You are starting to tick me off!" Bugaboom threw Tai onto some water, stripping the boy of his bee powers and rendering him unconscious. Bugaboom was now dropping bombs at a faster rate and he's flying faster. Matt, who was watching the battle has had enough, "Tai cannot fight anymore and the dinosaur is too busy with the bombs. Time for me to take action!" So Matt found the nearest stripy mushroom, figuring it would give him bee powers, to turn into bee form. With a hovering and a stomp, Matt has defeated Bugaboom. "You may have squashed me like any other bug," said Bugaboom, "but you will pay for it later!" And with that, Bugaboom fainted.

After bringing Tai back to the now mandibug free forest, Matt gave Tai a 1 up mushroom to revive him and a coin to Corey, who walked back by himself, to heal him. "Thanks Matt," said Tai, "you're a good friend." "It's what I do," Matt responded, "I collected these green capped mushrooms in case they were needed. I also took this power star from Bugaboom as I knocked him out. Now let's get out of here; it's boring." And so with 3 more power stars, Tai, Matt, the other kids and Corey say goodbye to the bee people and headed off to the Hubble.

Where will Matt and the kids stay on the Hubble? Where are the Pioneers? Who is the midget? Where did Bugaboom and the mandibugs come from? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy.

Special mentions go to Mine Yoshizaki for the Sgt. Frog references.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo, while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 5: The First Earth Pioneer

On the mothership, Sora had a lit torch in her hands as she approached Anthrax. "_If Biyomon can't help me," _she thought, "_I will have to burn Anthrax myself and flee to escape the resulting air pollution."_ Luckily for her, Anthrax was sleeping. When she got close enough, Sora put the business end of the torch on Anthrax's coal skin, setting it on fire before running away. Anthrax woke up later to the smell of smoke which turned out to be coming from himself. "OH CRUD," he screamed in agony, fear and despair, "SOMEONE PUT ME OUT!" At that time, the turtle-like robot called Hydros arrived to the cry for help and put his master out before saying, "Your highness. Reports say that Bugaboom has failed to conquer the Honeyhive Galaxy and it seems that boy you hate so much was not alone in his defeat." "First I was on fire and now this," Anthrax said ticked off, "I was spying on that freak hoping he would get the bees out of the way so I can take away all of their coal. No matter, you guard Luna so she doesn't escape. I'll find out who helped that boy and lure them away from him." Hydros left shortly afterwards.

"So Tai was crying for hours and hours," Corey was saying on the Hubble to Matt, "Which was weird because he looked cheerful before." "Just so you know, we all cried right after we were taken from Earth," Matt responded, "I'm surprised Tai held his depression back to help you out. Or maybe I'm not. It's called keeping a cool face." "Not letting depression get in the way is what my father achieved when he shot down Anthrax's ship and delaying his plans but your term describing it is actually quite creative." "I kept my cool face when Tai was knocked out to defeat Bugaboom and bring the both of you back here because that's what friends are for." "Now I feel sorry for the short guy with sunglasses because he may have no friends at all. Next time we see him, he's going to live here with people." The 'people' Corey referred to not only included himself, the digidestined or Edward but the possibly loads of lumas at the Hubble.

Meanwhile, Joe, the representative of Reliability, was experimenting with different herbs and mushrooms to develop new power-ups and medicines. However progress wasn't going well. "The closest thing to guinea pigs here are the so-called lumas," he said, "But I can't do anything without the risk of their mother being mad at me." "Is there a problem newcomer," asked a blue luma who just happened to pass by. "I have made a concoction made of bee mushrooms, 1 up mushrooms and bee stings," Joe replied, "To know its true effect, try it." The luma did and got sick so it ran to the nearest toilet to puke. "I really need a manual for these ingredients," said Joe in disappointment.

Meanwhile, Izzy, the representative of Knowledge, walked up to Edward to ask, "Excuse me sir. Can I use the internet?" "Sorry young one," Edward said in apology, "we do not have internet access here. Why do you ask?" "Because Mimi wanted to check her newly formed Facebook account. It's funny how someone like her is more resistant to its attractive features than Sora but I guess she'll have to wait a little longer. Sucks for me too because the digital world is cut away from us." So Izzy returned to the garage area where a new ship was being built. There, Mimi, the representative of Sincerity, caressed all the lumas in 50 centimetres of her. "Oh you guys are so cute," she said when she spotted Izzy sit down to play solitare on his laptop. "_Poor Izzy,"_ Mimi thought, "_Not being able to contact the digital world must suck. I miss Palmon but could not talk to her because that party was so cool._

Meanwhile, inside the Hubble, Tai was playing with T.K on the Wii. They were playing 'Mario Kart Wii' and Tai was winning. "Oh, no fair, you beat me again," said T.K., the representative of Hope, "we should play something else like 'Donkey Kong Country' or 'Super Mario World'." "How about 'Hotel Mario'," Tai suggested. "That game is stupid. I'll just play on my 3DS; a present from Rosalina." Many of the games and consoles in the game room were at the time not available on Earth. After about 30 minutes of silence, Tai broke it saying, "There is one thing that's bugging me. How did and the others escape Earth in the first place?" "Well, being digidestined," T.K. added, "meant we don't leave anyone behind so I and the others hijacked one of the enemy ships to save you and Sora. It didn't end well. We got captured; we forgot Kari, cried over the loss of our families and got lost ourselves. It was really sad too since we're kids who now had no parents. Then you by chance found us and brought us here." Just hearing this speech made Tai a bit teary before saying, "hang on a sec. I'll be back." When Tai left the room, he can be heard crying over the possible loss of his little sister.

Meanwhile in a newly formed TV room, Rosalina was watching space documentaries when Edward walked in to tell some relatively boring news. "What are you here for Edward," she said. "Well one of the rescued kids wanted to use the internet," Edward began, "but I told him it was not possible. We really need a new modem." "What we need to do now is to find the Earth Pioneers. Having Tai collect power stars not only gives my new home some power but it can also expand my radar." So Rosalina checked the radar and found something surprising so she said in excitement, "Sweet mother of the Leptys, I may have found the first Pioneer!" "Great! Now I must tell some cool news," said Edward as he walked out of the Hubble. When he got out, he called out, "Attention all visitors and lumas! I have a message for all of you," to gather everyone's attention. Once everyone was at the entrance to the Hubble, Edward announced, "presenting her royal highness, Rosalina of the Stars as she tells us some exciting news." Soon after, Rosalina presented herself.

"My lumas and friends," Rosalina began, "I have just pinpointed the location of the first Earth Pioneer! Once they are brought back here, we are one step closer to stopping Anthrax. However that means one of his more powerful minions will have to be fought to rescue the pioneer. That means Tai and a guardian will participate in this mission." "I don't really want to go because you have some rather awesome games," Matt said, "but I will give him some items that will help." Matt gave Tai who had tear stains from crying so much the said items then he said, "I'm sorry if you don't know if Kari's alright but I'm sure she is, just put on your cool face." "Will do bud," said Tai before talking to Rosalina, "as for guardian, your majesty, I'll take Corey." "WHAT," Corey shouted on surprise, "no way! I'm not doing it." "But dude, you're the only one I can relate to right now." "Alright but only because you said so." So Tai and Corey went into the portal to the terrace dimension and entered its final door to rescue the first pioneer.

That final door was different from the other doors in which it was scarier looking. It was the boss door. On the other side, Corey and Tai ended up on one of the comets in the Oort Cloud. Luckily, that comet was not heading towards any larger body. "Do you see anything Corey," Tai asked. "Not really," Corey replied using a telescope, "all I see is a sea of comets and nothing… Wait what is that?" In the distance lies an unusual sight with a blue end and a yellow end. The two used a launch star nearby to get to the weird sight to investigate only to find it's a peanut shaped planet. The blue end is a flooded forest while the yellow end is a drought with dying fish on the surface. In between was a huge dam holding back a lot of water. Within the dam walls was a cage with a moon-like object and an albino girl in a white dress; that was the first pioneer. Corey stood on the rim of the wall waiting for Tai to break open the cage but it was going to be very difficult, and it's not because the glass wall of the cage was strong even if it was.

"Hahahahaha, looks like we have visitors," a voice came out of nowhere; it was Hydros on a floating platform, "so you must be the boy who won against King Kaliente and Bugaboom. Well, I'm sorry but this pool is out of bounds of you. It's adult swim." Corey ran away in fear but Tai stood still saying, "I'm not here for a dip into a pool made with terror. I'm here for the pioneer, I don't even care who you are." "Well in that case, prepare to face the wrath of Megaleg!" With that Hydros didn't leave but kept his distance to watch the show. Almost instantly, a massive robot with three legs appeared with its feet on the dam's rim. The giant robot lifted its feet to squish the heroes but they got out of its way each time. This took a while until Corey got too slow with muscle fatigue and got squashed.

Tai eventually figured Megaleg's weak spot was on its crown via Luma's advice but could not climb its legs. "Darn. I almost had it," Tai said when he noticed huge claws on Corey's feet. Tai reached into the bag Matt gave him to get a 1 up mushroom and he threw it Corey to revive him. "Hey what did you do that for," Corey asked. "I need to climb the legs," Tai replied, "but it's hard. If I could ride you, you can use your big claws in your feet to help me." Figuring this was the only way, Corey reluctantly allowed Tai to ride him. Then Corey ran towards the robot leg, jumped at it and had his claws dig into the metal skin. Not falling off, Corey scaled up the leg all the way to the head. Tai dismounted Corey and ran away from the bullet bills or, shall we say, lured them to the glass cage holding a grand star shattering it. But it wasn't over.

"What do you think you are doing," yelled Hydros from a distance, "I cannot allow you to take the grand star or Luna!" So before Tai could reach the smaller cage holding the grand star, a bunch of walls appeared in the place of the larger cage and began to rotate. This threw Tai off guard and one of the bullet bills actually struck him. Luckily, Tai held on but Corey fell down. "Oh dear," Tai said, "There must be something in this bag I can use." He searched through the bag for coins to heal himself with but found something else instead. It was like a power star but was glowing in all of the colours of the rainbow. "This oughta be useful," Tai said as he used the star-like power-up. Almost instantly, Tai became invincible and glowing in various colours; it was a Starman. "This is so cool," Tai commented on his new power, "I should put this to good use." So he ran around the walls luring bullet bills into them in the process. Then Tai lured on last bullet bill to the cage shattering it and freeing the grand star.

When Megaleg was defeated, it blew up into several pieces; some of them struck Hydros sending him flying, "Looks like Hydros is blasting off again!" Not only that, the shockwave from the blast destroyed the dam restoring the water balance of the small planet and restoring the ecosystem. Also, the cage holding the albino girl had shattered. She approached Tai and Corey who had fallen on the ground saying, "thank you for releasing me. I am Luna, the Earth Pioneer of tidal power, and this is my partner, Gravis." She was referring to the moon-like object which turned into a beetle-like robot. It said, "Hi, I'm Gravis, guardian of tidal forces. What are you here for?" "I'm here to save you and grab a grand star," Tai replied as a launch star appeared. "The grand star is your reward," Luna said as Tai grabbed the grand star. "Well, that was fun," said Tai, "We'll take you back to Rosalina to rest. She's nice." "Thank goodness," said Corey, "this was too much for me." "Come on buddy, live a little," said Gravis. Then everyone went back to the Hubble.

When Tai, Corey, Luna and Gravis reached the Hubble, the grand star they were carrying fused with the telescope and created a surplus of energy. Gravis made a small watery planet with underwater turbines and orbited by a small asteroid to create a tidal current. This planet combined with the grand star's energy to activate and expand the solar panel floor to make room for a new portal and more lumas. Also, the diesel generator was jettisoned. Rosalina approached Tai to say, "With your efforts, our home now runs on renewable energy so there was no further need for diesel. Congratulations for saving Luna and Gravis but there are four more pioneers to go. And we will find your sister, I'm sure of it. In the meantime, rest you have earned it." So Tai went inside the Hubble to rest.

Where's the second pioneer? What is Anthrax planning? Will he capture the digidestined again? What happened to Kari? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Michel Ancel for the Rayman reference, Nintendo for their products and Satoshi Tajiri for the Pokemon reference.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 6: The Great Capture

The midget from before had moved house again. He got exiled from Honeyhive Galaxy for stealing honey for the last time. Now he had moved to Space Junk Galaxy to meet an old friend at a ball of silk. "Master Tarantox," he began to say, "I have lost two homes. Good Egg Galaxy was raided after its original owner left and never returned. I met him again in Honeyhive Galaxy but I got kicked out due to my sweet tooth. Where can I go next?" "Those were the two places I recommended you to live after we last cross paths Kyle," said the voice in the silk ball, "and since you cannot live in them, you may die as a homeless." "You said you would help me after Anthrax destroyed my home planet, Bellurus," said the midget, now known as Kyle but he gave up at the lack of hope of any answers.

Meanwhile in the mothership, Anthrax was confronted by Sora again. "Do you even know why I did that to you," shouted Sora, "Because you're a big bully!" "NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE BADMOUTHS ME," Anthrax yelled, "NOW I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH 3RD DEGREE BURNS!" Sora ran off without saying another word; at that instant, Hydros appeared all injured. "Sire," said Hydros, "I have failed you." "Maybe you have but I haven't," said a voice, "I'll take over operations from here your majesty." That was Naphtha, a blob of crude oil and one of Anthrax's higher minions. "The lure is set. The boy's allies will go right where we want them. And once that boy gets there should he find out, he'll never know what hit him." "Excellent work, Naphtha," said Anthrax, "I see you have started to weaken the enemy forces and have taken consideration of any faults. May your plan succeed. Now go away. I need to heal." So Naphtha left to see the diabolical plan in action.

Meanwhile at the Hubble, Izzy was conversing with Luna as well as studying her with his laptop. "So according to this CD edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica," he was saying, "you're Luna of the Earth Pioneers. Is that correct?" "Yes," Luna replied, "the other four are Solana, Terra, Skye and…" But before Luna could finish, a luma interrupted the conversation. "I have a special message for the, um, digidestined," the luma was saying. Joe, having been deprived from helping others and wanting more, grabbed the letter and read it:

"_Dear Digidestined,_

_There is a power star waiting for you near the floating platform area of Space Junk Galaxy._

_Once you get there, just follow the arrows and it's yours._

_Whatever you do, do not bring your leader or any pioneer, or else._

_From Anonymous"_

"OK, everyone," Joe was saying to the others after reading the letter, "a new power star has been found! Since Tai is resting we will take it ourselves. Follow me." Although they were shocked from Joe's recent excitement, they followed him into the newly built Starshroom anyway because they were bored. The Starshroom entered the teleporter and it never came back.

A few Earth hours later, Tai woke up to find his friends were gone. "Guys," he called, "where are you?" But there was no answer. Tai was about to talk to Rosalina about it when he found a letter on the ground, picked it up and read it. "So, they went to get power stars by themselves," Tai said after he finished reading, "how nice. Wait a minute. None of the power stars I found were easy to find and/or grab and I don't think any of the others are either." So he went to tell Rosalina about everything regarding the letter. "Oh dear, they must have been tricked," Rosalina said. Tai sighed in frustration. "You must get them back or else something bad will happen to them." So Tai asked Luna, Gravis, Edward and Corey but none of them wanted to come: Luna wanted to stare at the Moon, Gravis was sleeping, Edward was very busy and Corey outright refused. "Well if no one wants to help me," Tai said to himself, "then I might as well do this by myself." So he went into the second portal to enter another dimension. This time it took the form of a fountain room. Tai went into its only open door to get to Space Junk Galaxy. Little did anyone know, Naphtha was in his room in the mothership monitoring Tai's every moves. "Everything is going according to plan," he said, "Kamella, you know what to do." "Yes master," said the silhouetted figure known as Kamella and it left.

The Space Junk Galaxy like all the other 'galaxies' had a misleading name. They were much smaller than even a small town in terms of area. Contrast this with real galaxies such as the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds which were so large they could hold countless stars but I digress. So when Tai landed on the metallic platform, all he saw were pieces of space trash and arrow signs. "So this is why this place is called the Space Junk Galaxy," Tai remarked, "it's a flipping mess." Suddenly he saw pull stars and continued, "If the arrows are pointing at the pull stars, then my friends are that way." "Tai don't bother. It's a trap," said Luma in warning. "But I have to get my friends back!" So Tai used the pull stars by staring at them to float around rocks and metallic debris before landing on one of the three glass orbs orbited by electric balls called amps and orange star chips. Tai grabbed the star chips while sustaining shocks from the balls. Once the launch star was assembled, Tai used it to reach an abandoned rocket.

Tai had now encountered a new threat; scuttle bugs. They jumped up and down making it difficult for Tai to land on them so he spun them. Tai did manage to get some coins before continuing on the pull star path until he reached another metal platform that the arrows were pointing at. In the middle was the frozen body of Joe in a giant crystal so Tai freed him with the spin of justice. "Oh thank you, Tai," "Joe began to say, "it was getting rather stuffy in here." "Joe why did you come here," Tai was asking, "and where are the rest?" "Your friends fell for a devious trap," said a voice, "and now they have been captured." It was Kyle, otherwise known as the midget from Good Egg Galaxy. He held his hand and said, "My name is Kyle by the way." "I'm Tai." Tai politely returned the handshake and asked, "What do you mean by trap?" "The letter sent to your friends was written by Naphtha, one of Anthrax's highest minions," Kyle replied, "He used the word 'Anonymous' to hide his true identity. The letter's contents would have allowed you to ignore it for moral reasons but for some unknown reason Joe did exactly as it said and fell for the trap." "My medic skills were getting a bit rusty so I tried something else," Joe said under stress, "I'm sorry Tai." "You are forgiven," Tai said. "By the way, the power star is real but it's been shattered. You'll find the pieces over the edge."

That's when Tai had some bother: the silver pieces of the power star called the silver stars were hovering above nothing but a black hole. Courageously, Tai stepped over the edge of the platform only for a coloured platform to appear under his feet. Perplexed, Tai asked, "What gives?" "You're in the space junk platform zone," replied Kyle, "move carefully and platforms will appear once you approach their spots and disappear as you move away." As Tai carefully grabbed each of the five silver stars, Kyle was conversing with Joe. "Sorry big guy," Kyle said, "but you can't stay here. It's too dangerous." "But we can't live on Earth anymore, we live in the Hubble." "Sucks for your world and mine." That was the last line Joe said before a booger flung from Kyle's large nostril engulfed him and took him back to the Hubble. It was at that point that a power star appeared; it has been reformed. Tai came back to collect it and said to Kyle, "Where are my other friends?" "Over there," said Kyle; he was pointing at a cluster of miniships and a larger purple ship. "Your friends were taken there when I froze Joe with this to keep him safe," Kyle said as he revealed the F.R.A.P.P.E. (Freeze Ray Always Paralyses Potential Enemies), "let's go."

Tai and Kyle were fighting through several goombas on the miniships as well as two new kinds of threats: koopa troopas and magikoopas. Tai was struggling with the wizards but Kyle with his F.R.A.P.P.E. froze them. The koopa troopas were easy to beat but they would retract into their shells for protection. The shells could be used for projectile combat. Halfway through the brawl, Tai asked something when something hit him to Kyle, "Dude I just remembered, why did you lead us to the miniships at the Good Egg Galaxy?" "I never intended that," exclaimed Kyle, "I was meant to send you directly to King Kaliente but when I saw ships, I had big bother. They were going to raid the place for the owner's ashes of his father so I took them myself to Honeyhive Galaxy. The guy was so relaxed when I met him I told him it was for more food but I came back here sort some stuff out after exile by the bees." Tai was bewildered by Kyle's speeches so he said, "You know for a small guy you have a big mouth, and nose. And whoever you were talking about was Corey. We became friends fast." It was then another magikoopa appeared from nowhere behind Tai and shot a fire ball at him. With a fast sense of reaction, Kyle froze the ball and said, "Thanks for your words but it is not safe here. We have to keep going." Kyle had a rather serious tone in his voice that time so Tai followed him to the purple ship.

Upon boarding the big ship, Tai found his friends and ran to them to untie them while Kyle stood his ground. "Tai what took you so long," said Matt with the usual harsh tone, "we were rotting here!" "It's hard to change who you are but that's you," said Tai have grown used to it, "right now, we have to get out of here!" And it wasn't just Matt complaining. T.K was crying, "I wanna go," and Mimi said, "This place although pretty looking is ugly!" But Izzy with his intellect spotted Kyle, turned to him and asked, "Can you help us?" Kyle turned around and replied, "Yes but I'm on guard for koopa wizards. So chew this gum and mould it into a key or something." Kyle threw a stick of gum Izzy but was no ordinary gum; it was a G.U.M.M.B.O. (Gooey Unlocking Mush Maximises Break Outs). While Matt and T.K. were held by rope that Tai easily untied (pardon the pun) but Izzy and Mimi were held by chains with keyholes. Anyway, Izzy did as Kyle said and moulded a key from the gum after chewing it and used to unlock himself and threw it to Mimi. "You should be able to free yourself," Izzy said to Mimi, not wanting her to stick to a 'damsel of distress' role. Although she was disappointed, Mimi used the G.U.M.M.B.O. to free herself. "I'm free! Eeeeee," Mimi was squeeing out of satisfaction of self-induced freedom, "and the little munchkin looks so cute!" Without warning, Kyle was hugged by Mimi so tightly he couldn't breathe but by that time T.K. was freed.

Little did anyone know, they were not out of the woods. As the digidestined were going back to the Hubble, a cackle was heard from nowhere. "Hahahahahaha! Where do you think you're going?" It was a foul voice like a bat's call mixed with a cat's harsh cry. Most digidestined flinched but Tai due to experiences in the digital world (and that he won't turn down a single challenge) got ready for a possible battle. "We just want to go, whoever you are," Tai said. "I'm afraid I cannot allow that to happen," said the figure who revealed herself as Kamella. "Who is this," asked T.K. shivering with fear. "That's Kamella, one of Anthrax's lesser minions," Kyle replied, "I was actually afraid this might happen. Tai, you may need some help. Kamella is the queen of the magikoopas!" "Relax Kyle," said Tai not regarding any warnings, "I've practiced with the lesser foes. This should be easy." But Tai was wrong. Instead of one fireball, Kamella shot three from her sceptre. Tai managed to dodge two but was struck by the third. Then Kamella tried a new spell; she shot a koopa shell at Tai but the boy grabbed the shell and threw it at Kamella. "Yes," Tai exclaimed when he scored a hit. "You're not as weak as I thought," said Kamella as she got up, "come on out boys!" With that, Kamella summoned two magikoopas. This made the battle more difficult for Tai but he managed to pull through and found a second koopa shell and threw it. "Not so tough are you," Tai was taunting Kamella. "That's it! I've had enough," Kamella shouted as she shot a knock out spell towards Tai. It hit him spot on and Tai collapsed allowing Kamella to take him away.

Now that Tai was gone, Kyle sulked over the loss of his new friend when Matt rudely said, "Tai has always been like that. It must have been quite a while since we last went to the digital world and…" "Say no more," Kyle interrupted when he found the strength to talk, "it's not safe to be here." So Kyle flicked boogers at Matt, T.K. and Izzy to return them to the Hubble but before he did the same to Mimi he approached her and asked, "What is your name?" "It's Mimi," the girl replied, "are you going to fling the yucky booger at me?" "Very soon." Mimi shuddered at that prospect. That's when Kyle spoke again, "But first, will you give this to Corey? He's an orange feathered dinosaur dude." Kyle handed over a box that said 'Dad's ashes' to Mimi. "Yes I will," Mimi replied. That was the last thing she said before Kyle flung a booger at her to take her to the Hubble. At that point, there were only five words for Kyle to say. "Time for some unfinished business."

Kyle picked his nose after grabbing the power star left over and got engulfed in his own boogers in hopes that he will go to where he wants. But he ended up somewhere else. "What again," Kyle complained, "Well, I'll do this the old fashioned way." That somewhere else was a crystal orb planet with a cave system. Kyle was searching for a launch star within the caves full of goombas and coins. Luckily Kyle switched weapons to using a M.U.S.K.E.T. (Mustard Using Sidearm Kicks Enemy Tail), shot the goombas with it, grabbed coins and, before long, used a launch star he found to go to a rocky path. It was there Kyle got hungry and tried some mustard only to spit it out and shout, "Holy mother of Bellurus, this is wasabi!" So Kyle ran across the stone path shooting at scuttle bugs' mouths until he got to Tarantox's ball of silk. "Why have you returned," Tarantox said. "I'm here to do what I should have done a long time ago," Kyle replied sternly, "Get you out of my life!" He fired the M.U.S.K.E.T. at full throttle to the silk ball shattering it. Now Kyle can enter by using a sling pod to a smaller silk ball within the larger one. This shattered the smaller silk ball and revealed Tarantox; a big tick-like spider with three eyes and a proboscis. "You see Tarantox," Kyle continued, "I try to live in your house after Bellurus met its maker but you always ate my hard earned money every month and limited my personal activity without having to clean up later or else face eviction. Then you tell me where else to live but it never worked out. Starting now, I'll choose where to live and if it means getting you out of the way then so be it." "Fine. I accept your challenge," Tarantox responded and then the battle starts.

First Tarantox shoots some digestive juices out of his proboscis straight at Kyle. Kyle Dodged and ran to the other side of the planet's interior and shot the spider's posterior to flip him over, exposing three sores. Then Kyle used sling pods to strike the sores with the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. (Solid Pine Loaded Artillery Nicely Kicks Enemy Rear) causing great pain to Tarantox. The spider flipped back over and shouted, "Right! I'm stopping this nonsense!" Tarantox shot stomach acid again but when Kyle ran around to the back he got struck by acid from the side. Kyle recovered, used coins for healing and shot the back again. But nothing happened. "I knew you'd do that again," Tarantox said, "So my butt is now covered in mucus." "Very well done," Kyle said back, "but you don't know light physics like I do." Kyle got out the S.C.A.M.P.P. (Soup Can And Magnified Photon Phaser) and shot a powerful laser at the butt, melting the mucus and causing Tarantox to flip over again. Kyle used the sling pod to shoot lasers at the sores for the final blow which sent Tarantox flying. "I'm blasting off again," was what Tarantox said before leaving Kyle's sight.

After getting the power star from Tarantox, Kyle had some thought on his future plans and declared, "I might as well live in this Hubble place I sent the kids. I hope the box of ashes goes to Corey. All right, here goes." Kyle picked his nose again and concentrated on going to the Hubble when he was engulfed by his own boogers.

Will Kyle make it to the Hubble? Where is Tai being taken? Why was he taken? What happened to Kyle's home planet Bellurus? Will Corey get his father's ashes back? Find out next time on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Satoshi Tajiri for the Pokemon and Mr Warburton for the Codename: Kids Next Door references.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release. One last thing, there is a V for Vendetta reference for older readers to recognise but if you're younger don't worry if you don't get it.

Chapter 7: The Great Escape

On the mothership, Anthrax had successfully locked Sora up in chains. She was suspended over molten lava. "Oh great, lava, how original," Sora was complaining, she was also in distress, "but is it absolutely necessary to leave me hanging here?" "Yes, it is," Anthrax replied matter-of-factly, "You need to be taught a lesson on setting me on fire. And what better ways to punish you than leaving you in a helpless position waiting for a knight in shining armour, or shall I say Tai Kamiya." "You leave Tai out of this! And I can save myself if I knew how!" "Ah, being feminist I see. Well I'm afraid there is nothing…" "Sire, my mission was a success," said Naphtha who barged in, "Tai is now in my grasp." "WILL YOU NOT INTERUPT WHILE I," Anthrax began shouting when he realised something, "wait. You mean Tai fell for your tricks?" Naphtha nodded. "YES," Anthrax shouted victoriously. "Oh no," Sora muttered in despair. Then Anthrax continued, "Right. You hold on to the boy by leaving him in the same cell as some idiot bug you have on board and I'll focus on my attempts to kill whatever pioneer I find." So Naphtha left for his ship and Anthrax headed for the hangar leaving Sora dangling over lava.

"My father's ashes," Corey said back at the Hubble, "did you take them?" "No," Mimi replied, "Kyle gave them to me." Just when she said that, Kyle magically appeared in the garage and said, "Well I made it to the right place. The kids are here. I guess my booger teleportation skills have improved." He walked up to Corey and said, "Yes. I did take the ashes. No need to grill on the girl. It was because your property was being raided and I wanted to tell you at Honeyhive but you looked too fine. I'm sorry lied before." "You're pardoned for now," Corey was saying to Kyle, "but next time, keep your hands off my stuff." And then he went inside the Hubble.

That's where T.K. was talking to Rosalina. "And that's how Patamon digivolved into Angemon and defeated Devimon," he was saying, "too bad he had to turn back into an egg. It was that epic. Now I feel like talking to Patamon." "I know what happened the whole time," Rosalina said, "Gennai told me. We were friends back in the day. And it's been a whole year since the events you spoke of." It's true, T.K., although still one of the shortest digidestined, has grown considerably over the past year like the others and now he is 9 years old but I digress. "But onto different matters," Rosalina continued, "the only reason I called Earth 'Pekopon' to begin with was because I was experimenting with intergalactic slang. Although you didn't know what it meant, I thought it was offensive and I am sorry. Tell everyone that and that Tai fell for a trap more diabolical than what you have endured." "Okay," T.K. said as he left. Rosalina turned to Edward and said, "Bring Luna and any newcomers here."

Luna and Kyle were standing before Rosalina as the star queen said, "Kyle, you and Luna are on a mission. You may already know that Tai has been kidnapped but she doesn't until now." "That must be terrible," Luna responded, "who's going to free the other pioneers now?" "Us, that's what" Kyle said to Luna, "you have Gravis and I have 2x4 technologies. We can defeat Naphtha ourselves but if we can't, may Tai be assisted." "I applaud your fighting spirit, Kyle," Rosalina said, "just go to the Battlerock, Naphtha's ship, and do what you can." Kyle and Luna gave Rosalina a salute and with Gravis and 2x4 gadgets went to the fountain portal and entered the door to 'Battlerock Galaxy'. Now while Space Junk Galaxy was simply beyond the Oort cloud, the Battlerock was near Proxima Centauri, Sol's nearest stellar neighbour at 4.3 light years, looking for planets to take oil from. But Kyle, Luna and Gravis did not appear inside the ship. Instead they appeared on a metal platform near it.

"Well," Kyle started saying as soon as the crew appeared, "this is our mission: We break in, rescue Tai, and blast this ship to smithereens. Okay?" "Okay," Luna and Gravis said and picked up the five blue star chips the summon pull stars. This led the three to use them to get to a launch star which they used to close in on the Battlerock. On the next platform, Luna saw a big screw sticking out and said, "Someone should keep these down. They could trip on them and the structure would be less stable." So she screwed it down but before she knew it the whole platform was moving. "Good lord, Luna," Gravis said, "that really surprised me. Also you may want to look out for cannonballs." That's when Luna turned around and noticed a cannonball was heading straight for her. All seemed lost until Kyle used his S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. to knock it back, blowing a chunk off. Luna said "Thanks. I wouldn't have survived without you," but Kyle was less than impressed. "Thanks? THANKS! WOULDN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT MEN! ARE YOU KIDDING! YOU AGREED TO HELP ME AND NOW YOU WANT A MAN'S HELP," Kyle was roaring and this scared Luna, "YOU COULD HAVE JUMPED OUT OF THE WAY AT THE VERY LEAST BUT NO, YOU HAD TO WAIT FOR A MAN! WHY ARE YOU EVEN A PIONEER ANYWAY!" Tears built up in Luna's eyes and Gravis got cross with Kyle for this. "Thanks a lot, Kyle," Gravis was shouting, "You ruined it for all of us and killed Luna's morale. I don't want to see you again!" So Gravis took Luna and flew away.

Because of his tantrum, Kyle was deserted. There was no one to work with. There was no one to protect him. It was just him, all alone and he cried and all this time was not paying attention to all of the cannonballs hitting him and all the electricity shocking him. After enduring many injuries, Kyle pulled himself together and said to himself, "Okay, you overreacted. Just put on your cool face and finish the mission. This time, join Tai after he is freed." Kyle then noticed there were no cannons on the wall; he had long passed the danger zone. Kyle faced the wall and fired a concentrated shot at it from his S.C.A.M.P.P. and it blew a hole in it. Kyle said, "It's time to kick butt and chew bubble-gum. I'm all out of gum," and went in.

Meanwhile in a cell, a large, purple dragonfly with front legs as claws was drawing on the walls. "I shall call zis 'A Failed Democracy'," it said and surely enough it depicted Anthrax as a political leader but hogged all the money instead of helping the citizens of the Milky Way. Then it heard the cell door open. The guards had thrown a human boy into the insect's cell. The insect examined the body and concluded, "Probably unconscious." But the boy's eyes opened. He got up and examined his new surroundings. "I guess Kyle was right," he said, "I got over excited and now I'm in prison with a big bug. What the heck!" The boy freaked out then the insect said, "Fear not. I'm not a zreat." "I'm used to seeing weird people," the boy said to the stranger, "first digimon and now aliens. I just didn't expect to see you. I'm Tai by the way." Tai held out his hand. "My name is Noland. Pleased to meet you," the stranger said and returned the handshake but as Noland's 'hand' was a claw, he nipped Tai by accident. "Ow, that stung," said Tai as he pulled his hand away, "I should be more careful. And what's with the suction cups?" Tai was refering to the complex apparatus all over Noland who replied, "Zat's my Amperan Atmosphere Emulator. I use it to survive in low pressures and oxygen levels. The box on my back mimics photosynzesis to give me new oxygen so…" "Enough with the boring stuff," Tai interrupted, "we have to get out of here."

Meanwhile in the Battlerock's cockpit, Naphtha was simply relaxing until the alarm went off. "Alert! Alert! An intruder has been detected!" "What? Not now! The boss won't be happy. Guards!" Naphtha was yelling to summon the security. "Yes sire," one of the guards asked. "There is an unwanted visitor on the ship," Naphtha announced, cranky since he just woke up, "Exterminate him on sight!" "Sir yes sir." Before long, the guards left to find the intruder while Naphtha checked the security monitors. The intruder was Kyle and was heading for the cockpit area. "This is not good," Naphtha said in despair just as Kyle entered the door. "Hey! You're not allowed in here," Naphtha was shouting to the midget but Kyle did not respond, "If you know what's good for you, you will run out of here like a little ^%^!" At those words, Kyle threw a bar of soap at the blob of oil which was his weakness. Naphtha left for the nearest escape pod screaming in pain. "Forget your mouth, your body needs a good clean," Kyle laughed as he approached the monitors, "I knew the soap I found in the toilets would help." Kyle checked the monitors and found Tai in a cell with a big purple bug then he looked at the map and said, "I know what must be done," before grabbing a dropped power star on the way out.

Meanwhile back in prison, Noland was trying to cut the bars with his claws while Tai examined his belongings. "Hey what's with all the USB's," Tai asked. Noland stopped trying to cut the bars, turned around and said in response "Zat would be my file storage collection. I store computer-drawn artworks on zere before zey are ready to go on Deviantart. Speaking of which, one of ze devices actually allows me to access ze internet if you want to know zat." "Cool! Now I need a computer to use this on and…" Before Tai could finish, the cell door was opened by Kyle and his G.U.M.M.B.O. "Wow finally," said Tai but Kyle quickly and hurriedly said, "We must get out of here. I planted a bomb somewhere in the ship and am about to fulfil my duty to rescue you." Sure enough, Kyle has planted a L.E.M.O.N.A.D.E. (Lemony Explosive Makes Outstanding Noise And Douses Enemies) on the floor in the cockpit. Kyle later said, "The bomb will go off in about 5 minutes and the controls will be useless. We must find an escape pod before it's too late!" "Yeah," shouted Tai, "let's get out of here!" But Noland said, "Nein!" "Why not?" "I overhead ze guards talk about alternative controls. If we blow up ze engine room, ze ship can never go anywhere again." "Good idea! I like your thinking. It reminds me of Izzy. Let's go!" So Tai, Kyle and Noland headed towards the engine room.

Once at the door to the engine room, which had a 'DO NOT ENTER OR ELSE!' sign on it, Kyle said to Tai and Noland, "Well, one of you is going to find a way to destroy that engine," he justified by peeking in the door and pointing at the diesel engine, "it should take you no more than," he checked the timer on his wrist, "3 minutes!" "I'm not doing zis," said Noland with a fearful expression on his face, "I'll stay here and do some art." "_Looks like I'll have to do it,_" thought Tai reluctantly. Once in the engine room, Tai observed the three engines which looked like giant ICEs. "This place must use enough fuel to power over 9000 cars at once," he said in awe before noticing a bob-omb dispenser. "Throw the bob-ombs in the hatch doors," said Luma from Tai's heart." "Well if you say so," said Tai as he pushed the green button and grabbed a bob-omb from the pipe above. He took the bob-omb to one of the engines and threw it in the hatch that would be otherwised used by guards for maintenance. He did the same for the second engine without waiting for the first on to detonate. But as Tai approached the third engine with the third bob-omb, the first one blew up, throwing Tai off guard and dropping the bob-omb. It released a power star. Now Tai has a decision to make saying, "What should I go for? The star or the bob-omb? Oh man!"

Back outside, Noland has decided to take a break from his currently unknown painting and checked Kyle's wrist timer. Alarmed by what it said, Noland entered the engine room and said to Tai, "Hey Tai. I'm just going to let you know zat you have one minute to…" But Noland could not finish his sentence; he noticed that 2 engines are ruined and the third has had a bob-omb thrown in it and there's a power star on the floor. "Never mind," Noland said as Tai ran past him. He went to pick up the power star muttering under his breath, "Dummkopf," but as he did the third engine blew up, surprising the bug. Meanwhile in the cockpit, a guard noticed the L.E.M.O.N.A.D.E. and said to herself, "Oh crud," before the bomb blew up in her face and wrecked the controls. That's when Noland ran out of the engine room and hurried along to the nearest escape pod that was just closing due to lack of power and already had Tai and Kyle in it. Luckily, Noland got in just as it closed; it was a close shave. In the cockpit, the guard who was now covered in lemon juice entered the manual control room which had only a bicycle-like mechanism in it. "If the main controls are dead," she muttered to herself, "I'll have to use this instead. Wait what!" The guard was shocked at the 'blown engines' signal which was flashing.

The escape pod successfully blasted away from the Battlerock which was now inoperational, busted and emitting smoke (it had an onboard oxygen supply). The pod stopped on a UFO shaped planet where all of its three occupants got out. "Zat was wunderbar," Noland exclaimed as he got out; he has clearly enjoyed the 'ride', "Zrills, danger, suspense and adrenaline! We should try zis again!" "Well boys," Kyle announced, "this is where I get off. Have fun with Naphtha." And so Kyle used a nearby launch star to go back to the Hubble. That's when a very large metallic spinning top with a razor sharp rim and red eyes dropped down from above and began charging at Tai and Noland. All seemed lost until a figure with a black cloak appeared and sliced it in half. The figures cloak had several seemingly unnecessary zippers on it and the figure, when it turned around to the two boys, looked to be wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. Tai approached the strange figure and tried greeting it, "Hello, I'm Tai of Earth." No response but a point to the other launch star which goes closer to the Earth-like moon of Pandora. Upon learning of this, Tai said to Noland, "Well. We should probably get going." "Nein," Noland said as the figure started making gestures that mimic an orchestral conductor and '1812 Overture' started playing from out of nowhere, "I just want to see zis light show." "If you say so." As the music progressed, black hole begin to appear around the Battlerock and at the crescendo, the Battlerock was being violently ripped apart by the black holes causing spectacular explosions while doing so. After the song ended, the figure stopped making gestures, the Battlerock was now debris, the black holes disappeared and Tai said, "Okay that was awesome! But let's go" "Right behind you," said Noland as he and Tai used the launch star to go to Naphtha's stronghold near Pandora.

Will Noland and Tai make it to Naphtha? How will Naphtha react to the destruction of the Battlerock? Who was the cloaked figure? Why has Kyle snapped at Luna? Find out next time on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Mr Warburton for the Codename: Kids Next Door, Alan Moore for the V for Vendetta, Oddworld Inhabitants for the dispenser and Square Enix for the Kingdom Hearts references. Also, is not my property.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release. Also, I apologise to James Cameron for making Avatar references.

Chapter 8: A New Digivolution

The guard from the previous chapter may have miraculously survived the violent explosion that demolished the Battlerock but she was heavily injured as she rested on the UFO planet from before. The guard, like all others, was wearing what appears to be a mechanised suit resembling an army soldier's uniform; her face was concealed by a helmet with a visor. Anyway, the guard was resting when a growing bright light dominated her vision and that was it. When she woke up the guard was dangling over the same pool of lava as Sora. Anthrax was watching her up close with an angry expression on his face and said, "Agent S. You're probably asking why you are in your current position." Then he got really cross. "IT IS BECAUSE YOU"VE FAILED YOUR FIRST MISSION! I PERSONALLY HIRED YOU TO KEEP THAT CURSED BUG IN THAT CELL ON ACCOUNT OF A DARE! NOW I HAVE TO PAY $4000 TO NAPHTHA!" He calmed down in the following silence that lasted for 10 whole minutes then Agent S explained herself, "Well I'm sorry if I screwed but it wasn't my fault. It was some midget I saw on the monitors. He planted a lemon-shaped bomb in the cockpit and it blew up on my face. I went for the manual controls but the engines were blown and the whole thing blew up. Please forgive me. I don't want any more injuries." Anthrax started thinking about something and then he said, "Very well, you will not receive any more punishment. But you will remain here while I go find Naphtha and pay off my dare money." And with that he left.

Meanwhile back on the Hubble, Corey was watering whatever plants from his garden survived Anthrax's attack on Good Egg when Mimi walked up to him curiously and asked, "What are you doing? These weird flowers look pretty." The plants Corey were tending to were not like anything known on Earth; they were native to Ignaria. "Well toots," Corey began to answer (he's still getting to know the digidestined), "these plants are among the surviving flora of Ignaria my home planet. It is my duty to keep them alive and Anthrax was not helping." He cringed at the mention of the monster. And then he continued, "Between that and my father's ashes, they're all I have left. Why are you here?" "I need advice," Mimi replied, "How do I get emotionally closer to Izzy? I mean we've only known each other for a year but still." Corey stopped watering the plants to answer the question, "Only a riddle can solve this: grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and I hurt people." That only confused Mimi.

T.K. was in the lounge room not playing the Wii however tempting that is but watching Pokemon. He could not turn his eyes anywhere else but the screen as an epic battle between Ash's Pikachu and one of the gym leaders. That aside, Matt came in, looked at the TV, then at T.K. and said, "Why do you watch this junk?" "Because it's cool," T.K. replied without turning his head to his older brother, "Why?" Matt then added, "I never really was into Pokemon, I'm more of a Sonic the Hedgehog sort of guy. But if that's what you want to watch then who's stopping me?" Matt walked out only to see Kyle fly right into his face and make him fall to the ground. As they both recovered, Matt got mad at Kyle and shouted, "Hey, watch where you're going you baka!" But Kyle ignored Matt and immediately rushed over to Rosalina to tell some news. The queen of the stars turned around to see the small but big-nosed figure and asked calmly, "Welcome back Kyle, what happened?" Kyle began to answer, "Well my fair lady, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I have found Tai and some new guy and busted them out safe and sound. The bad news is they must now fight Naphtha and I chickened out. I mean guards I can handle, Tarantox is easy but Naphtha, well the best I can do is blast soap at him but he is practically impossible near large quantities of oil. And they're fighting him at an oil refinery! I'm sorry." Rosalina thought for a moment and said, "You did the right thing, you need to control you're anger and violence." And then she left leaving Kyle to think, _I wonder what they're doing right now?_

Meanwhile, Tai and Noland were closing in at Naphtha's huge refinery near Pandora and landed at the entrance. After a moment of silence, Tai spoke up, "Well, Noland, we're here. Just an obstacle course to conquer and I'm ready to kick Naphtha's butt." But Noland said, "But Tai, maybe we should take ze time here to admire ze wonderful sights of Pandora. I'm willing to draw a picture of it and put it on Deviantart." But Tai already left so Noland said loudly, "I also picked up a power star while seeing the explosive show," but he was not sure if Tai heard it so Noland went in. Tai went through a loop-de-loop and got past a thwomp (What? The gravity is messed up here!) But Noland stopped halfway to paint his picture. Then Tai went throught the second leg; a corridor where blue arrows make him fall down and red arrows make him fall up with another thwomp but Noland stood in a red arrow zone to paint another angle of Pandora. The third leg had Tai dodge another thwomp to go through a walkway full of flamethrowers and rotating fire platforms but Noland found a safe spot away from the fire to paint a third angle of Pandora.

After three legs of the obstacle course, Tai was exhausted and was willing to rest. That's when Noland caught up to him to take note and ask, "Tired?" Tai could only nod while Noland continued, "I see you had too much fun back zere. I stopped periodically to paint pictures of Pandora." Noland stopped talking when he noticed a shed. To him it was a safehouse so naturally he dragged Tai in there. Once in, Tai was put on whatever bed was there so he could rest easily. Noland, meanwhile, found a computer and said to himself, "Now to scan these paintings, and put them on Deviantart." But after turning it on, he found that there was no internet connection but luckily Noland brought his portable USB modem and used it to surf the web. A few minutes later, Tai woke up after quite a rest. "Okay, now I'm refreshed," he said to himself, "Time to end this!" Then he left to confront Naphtha.

There were several guards working at a separation column to remove all of the soap from Naphtha. It was a tough process but afterwards he was poured into an empty pool with a glass ball in the middle. That's when Tai showed up. Naphtha began to take shape and notice Tai to ask, "What do you want?" Tai began some heroic speech, "Naphtha, your reign of terror ends here! Prepare to meet the light!" Naphtha replied, "Like I even care! And who know how many times I heard that. Just leave me alone, I've had a rough day!" But Tai does not leave. Instead, he said, "You know what I want, a grand star, now hand it over!" Then Naphtha said, "Make me!" and dragged Tai in. Back in the shed, Noland was not happy at the large amount of ads on the screen. He angrily exclaimed, "Zis is stupid! I must have released some virus or somezing!" Noland was rapidly closing the ads, in fact so rapidly he accidentally opened a window to the digital world. Fascinated by the bizzare ecosystem within the net, Noland went to the bed saying, "Tai! Look at zis! A world in ze 'net!" But Tai was not there; he left to fight Naphtha. Noland could not help but mutter, "Dummkoph," and is faced with two decisions: help Tai with a Bee Mushroom, a Life Mushroom, a 1-up Mushroom and several coins he found randomly or explore this mysterious digital world. He chose to explore the digital world out of curiousity, grabbed a can of coke from the fridge and looked through the digital world. He simply couldn't help it.

Meanwhile in the Digital World, the old man known to the digidestined as Gennai was staring at the fish in his pond. There was no conflict, just peace and quiet. Until a holographic screen with Noland's face suddenly appeared. Noticing this, Gennai turned his head to the holographic screen as Noland said in amazement, "Ja! Anozer human! Do you know Tai?" Gennai began to respond, "Yes I do know Tai, but I am but a fragment of data like all the digimon here. Heck, I guided Tai and his friends to save this world from Myotismon and worse. Now I'm chilling out with nothing to do. You can talk to Tentomon, he looks like you." It was then, a rookie rank digimon resembling a ladybird, Tentomon flew up to the screen right in front of Noland, as if he was summoned. "Greetings, outsider," Tentomon began to say, "I am Tentomon, companion of Izzy, and this is the Digital World." But Noland interrupted by asking, "Are you one of zose 'digimon' zat old geezer said? And who's Izzy?" "Nevermind that 'Izzy' part for now and yes, I am a digimon," Tentomon continued, "But with all the peace, I have found time to do art." "Really," Noland asked astonished, "Zat's wunderbar! You could make use of your mind and learn as you draw! Knowledge is awesome! We could be great friends!" During that speech, Noland put his huge claw on the screen accidentally knocking over the coke.

Just Tentomon put his claw on the screen, the coke spills out of the can and touches the cables, zapping both Noland and, apparently, Tentomon. The short circuit caused a huge transfer of data to Noland, making him glow purple. Tentomon disappears in the data transfer as the Digimon theme song you know and love starts playing, indicating a digivolution. What kind of digivolution could be happening without digivices? Noland, having absorbed all of Tentomon's data shouted, "Noland fusion digivolve to…" and before long his exoskeleton turned a reddish purple, wing cases grew on his back to cover the wings, the life support system became wires with batteries in place of oxygen tanks, the tail turns into an electric plug, the antennae are covered in electricity, the claws turn to an anode for the right and a cathode for the left, the legs grow longer and grow clawed toes, the jaws grew bigger and fearsome, the eyes turned red and a huge horn grew on Noland's forehead. After the transformation was over, Noland finished off with, "Ampmon!" and the music ends.

When Noland, now Ampmon, gained his senses from the digivolution, he looked in a nearby mirror to observe his new appearance saying, "What just happened? I'm an electric machine? Ja! Wait till I tell Tai about…" That's when he remembered. "Oh $ &*! He might be in trouble!" So Ampmon rushed out of the shed grabbing his USB and the useful items along the way. By the time Ampmon arrived at Naphtha's pool, he was horrified that Tai was not there; he had been defeated. "Nein, I was too late," Ampmon wailed in despair, "my friend's gone and it's all my fault!" Hearing this misery, Naphtha took shape and proudly said, "That's right! I win! And it wasn't wise to invade my shed. But who cares, I win!" But Ampmon wasn't done speaking to himself, "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade," then starts talking to Naphtha, "My lemonade is awesome powers! Magnetic shield!" A positively charged field covered Ampmon to repel the oil molecules and dived in; assuming Tai was dragged down there. He searched everywhere in the oil until he found a foot. Could this be Tai? Ampmon grabbed the foot and dragged the body out of the oil with his very powerful wings. Once he broke the surface, Ampmon put Tai's body, yes it was him, before pulling himself up.

After all the oil was off with Ampmon's field, Tai was given the 1-up Mushroom and woke up. "What happened," he began to say still a bit dazed then turned to face a new character, "Noland, is that you?" "Technically yes," Ampmon began, "but apparently I changed into a superhero. In this form, you may call me Ampmon!" Tai smirked and asked, "Did you digivolve?" "Pardon," Ampmon said confused. "Nevermind, for now I need help!" "Well all is not lost," Ampmon said as he gave Tai the 2 other mushrooms and coins to make him stronger. However, Naphtha recovered from the electric pulse and said angrily, "THAT"S IT! NOW MORE MR NICE GUY! PREPARE FOR AN OIL SPILL!" Tai chortled at the bad joke but Ampmon stayed serious and shouted, "Nein! Volt shocker!" without warning as electricity was shot out of the tail right at Naphtha, setting the blob of oil on fire. Freaked out, Naphtha began to flee as Ampmon ordered Tai, "I'll hold him off! Break the glass ball!" So Tai in his bee form hovered over the ball and ground pounded to smash it. A blonde girl holding a grand star and a huge snake made of photovoltaic panels came out of the remains. The girl with jeans, hair in a long ponytail and an orange shirt started her speech, "Wow, I thought we would never be free. Anyway, my name is Solana, the Earth Pioneer of solar power and this is my partner, Helion." The PV panel snake, Helion, said, "SSSSSo niccccce to meet you, newcomer." "I'm Tai," Tai introduced himself and pointed at Ampmon, "and this is my friend Noland but he digivolved into Ampmon for some reason." But Ampmon wasn't listening; he was telling a speech to himself, "With zese new powers, I could help countless civilizations and destroy the oppressive rule of Anthrax." But just then, he changed back into Noland and an in-training digimon called Motimon appeared in his claws. Powerless, Noland muttered, "Argh! Zis is loss."

Before long, Anthrax arrived in his small ship and approached the pool saying, "Hey Naphtha, the dare money is here. I hope you…" but stopped after he saw a trail of smoke indicating Naphtha's path. Frustrated at the defeated, Anthrax noticed Tai, faced him and shouted, "YOU! YOU HURT MY SECOND MINION AND FREED HIS HOSTAGE! NOW YOU WILL FACE ME!" Knowing Anthrax is way too powerful, Tai could only say, "Run!" as he and his allies left with the grand star for the Hubble via a launch star. Anthrax returned to his ship very cross and left without a trace. The refinery over Pandora is now abandoned.

When Tai, Noland, Solana and Helion reached the Hubble, the grand star they were carrying fused with the telescopes core to create more energy. Helion created a giant solar powered satellite that shoots microwaves and several dishes to capture that energy. This made enough energy to expand the floor the other way to form a library and a third portal. This time it was the kitchen. As Tai returned, the others rushed over to celebrate his return until Izzy noticed Motimon in Noland's claws. "Motimon," he began to ask, "What are you doing here?"

Will Izzy learn of the reasons behind Motimon's sudden presence? Will he learn of Mimi's feelings towards him? What is the answer to Corey's riddle? Where has Naphtha run off to? Is Kyle really that violent? And who is the third pioneer? Find out on the next exciting episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Valve for the Team Fortress 2, Nintendo for the Pokemon and Sega for the Sonic the Hedgehog references. Also, I would like to point out that there was a Rayman reference in chapter 5, courtesy of Ubisoft. That is all.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 9: Barrels of Plum Juice

Back in the mothership, the guard known only as Agent S was making her escape. She did so by climbing the chain she was dangling from and using a stray screw to free herself on the rafters. Even I don't know how that happened! Anyway, Agent S was making a break for it when she heard a voice behind her, "Hey wait! Aren't you going to free me as well," then she stopped to seemingly help the source of the voice; it was Sora. After Agent S freed Sora with the same strategy, both girls have left the room as Anthrax entered fuming. He was grumpily mumbling bad words as he held a pipette holding whatever's left of Naphtha; a small droplet of oil. The droplet was released onto a small pool of oil, reviving the monster. "What happened," Naphtha could only mutter to which Anthrax replied, "You got burnt and released more than just heat and pollution. Here's your stupid money." Anthrax handed over the $4000 from earlier as he continued, "As a result of your failure, Reactor will be taking over from here." At those words, a machine-like entity known as Reactor appeared and approached Anthrax. "Greetings sire," Reactor began saying, "I have a new plan on how to get rid of pests. From what I heard, it's a human boy named Tai. What's going to happen is he'll be lured into a haunted house with a girl named Kari, who I assume is his sister judging by her self-monologues, and locked in there." Anthrax is intrigued by Reactor's plans and depraved actions so he said, "Come Reactor, we have much to discuss about your plan." The villains leave to learn more of Reactor's activities.

Meanwhile back at the Hubble, the whole crew gathered at the dinner table in the newly formed library to celebrate Tai's return from capture. The dinner layout and food were Western style, confusing most of the digidestined except Mimi who has been to Hawaii before but Tai was used to how he sat to eat this way, but the choice of utensils got his attention. "Uh excuse me Ed," Tai asked regarding the knife and fork, "what are those and why them instead of chopsticks?" Edward's reply was, "I just thought you might use a bit of foreign culture, the kind I grew up with." Izzy, hungry for knowledge listened in on Edward's words; this makes Mimi happy that Izzy is starting to share interests with her. Edward continued on with his monologue, "You see, I grew up in Great Britain but know nothing of Japanese culture, my mum forbid it as a kid because when I was your age, Japan was an enemy country. Now even after the war is over, dear mum still disliked the Japanese but she's not here and I'm near 6 Japanese children. Joke's on her now!" Izzy took in all of the information while Mimi sympathised with Edward for not knowing Japanese culture. "_Izzy and I seem to be the only people interested in Ed's speeches, and he wants to know Western culture like I did_" Mimi thought but controlled herself to prevent a squee, "_It was hard at first but it got easy later_." On the opposite end of the scale (and the table), Kyle called out of boredom, interrupting Mimi's thoughts, "Oh enough with the bull! I want to eat, whatever we're eating!"

The whole group looked at Kyle following the outburst, prompting a "What?" out of the midget. "Now as for the knives and forks," Edward continued, "I'm a little too old to use them now due to arthritis, Luna is too miffed for some reason and Solana is distracted." Sure enough, Solana had her eyes on Izzy the whole time. Mimi noticed and got a bit mad when Joe made his response. "If I may interject," he said, "that leaves only Mimi to demonstrate; she has been to Hawaii." Now all eyes were on Mimi who went a bit tense but managed to use the knife and fork as she remembered. Success! Now the other digidestined repeated those actions, starting with Izzy causing Mimi to smile. A while later, the food, which was eggs, bacon, pineapple and spam, was eaten. Mimi had not eaten her spam; instead she looked at it like it was a stain on her dress. "Did anyone not have any spam?" she asked, "because I don't like spam." "Oh don't worry Mimi," Izzy sympathised, having assumed it was related to the Digital World, "I'll eat your spam. I love it!" Izzy took Mimi's spam, ate it and said the 'after dinner words' before approaching Noland. The giant bug was eating while holding up his plate (it's a cultural thing) when Izzy said, "Noland, come with me, I need to do some research," so Noland followed Izzy out of the library. That's when Corey said, "Never mind the spam, can I not have eggs? My culture forbids the consumption of theropod products, and that includes birds!" Everyone stopped eating due Corey's remarks until Joe talked to the dinosaur. "If it makes you happy," Joe said to Corey, "you can have some sushi."

"Where did you find it," asked Corey. "Some Lumas picked it up from Pluto," Joe continued, "I don't know how it got there nor do I care." "You know, being reliable isn't just about directly helping," Corey concluded as he got the sushi container, "It's the honesty that really counts. Thanks anyway." So Corey went on to eat the sushi which was unusually green; to Tai's horror, it was the same sushi he spiced up for the party before all this chaos. Tai tried to stop Corey but it was too late. One sushi piece into the maw of the raptor and then that really does it. His eyes pop out, he flaps his wing-like hands, and he runs out the door looking for milk, leaving everyone else amazed.

Outside, Izzy was working on his laptop as usual; Motimon, having digivolved back to Tentomon, had been teleported back via his digivice and Noland just watched. He was researching on why Noland digivolved back at the refinery. "Prodigious," Izzy exclaimed his catchphrase, "your digivolution was caused by the absorption of Tentomon." "It was all because I spilt some coke, okay," Noland reassured the geek, "as for ze transformation, I only knew half ze words; ze first few were voluntary but ze last few were uncalled for. It's like I was possessed." "Well if wanted to have Corey digivolve, I would…" Izzy added but Mimi interrupted with, "Hi, Izzy!" "Please Mimi, I'm working," Izzy exclaimed, miffed at the sudden interruption. "Well, Rosalina wanted me to tell you that Beach Bowl Galaxy is now open," Mimi continued, "It may have something to do with Corey's riddle so he's coming. Wanna come?" "Only if we bring Tai," Izzy added, "there may be power stars to collect." So Izzy put his research on hold leaving Noland to do as he pleases, if you catch my drift.

While Corey, Izzy and Mimi wait at the third portal, Tai was talking to Edward. "I may want to swim in that world," he was saying, "but I didn't bring my swimsuit." Edward held up orange trunks and said, "These belong to my grandson, Terra. But since he's not here, you can have them." "Thanks Ed," Tai thanked Edward, grabbed the trunks (which were a tad big; must belong to a teenage boy) and joined his party to go to Beach Bowl Galaxy. In the third portal's dimension which resembled a kitchen, there are three doors as usual. Only the one leading to Beach Bowl was open so naturally they went there via a launch star. The galaxy itself is orbiting a binary system known as Sirius; an A-type star and a white dwarf 8.6 light years from the Hubble. In fact the star is so bright that upon arrival, Izzy already started tanning. "Prodigious," he said, "the extra ultraviolet light from Sirius is making me tan." "Oh, s$^&," Corey exclaimed in shock, "I almost forgot! Put on some sunscreen now! More melanomas happen here than on either planet we came from." So Tai, Corey, Izzy and Mimi all put on some sunscreen, as well as put on sunglasses after the latter hurt her eyes from accidentally looking at the star. "Put these on," Corey continued to Mimi, "I accidentally hurt people here when I had these off." After that humorous detour, Tai explained the plans, "Okay guys, we are here for power stars. If you find any, go back to the Hubble. Izzy. Mimi. Check out those two planets." Tai pointed at a waterfall planet and an icy planet before continuing, "Corey, you check out the back, I'll check the lagoon. If you need to rest, rest in the shade. Now go before I keep sounding like Joe." So everyone went to their assigned places in search of the power stars.

Tai was looking around the lagoon for a power star when he noticed the whole planet he was on looked like a toilet. What he also found were several penguins swimming around. "Penguins in a warm climate," Tai laughed himself, "I thought they only lived in Antarctica." At that exact moment, a penguin went up to him and said, "Not all penguins lived in cold water." "A talking penguin," Tai muttered, "now my life is complete." "Oh don't feel bad, the real weirdo is our teacher, Riley. He's supposed to give us lessons but he's always sleeping for some reason, not that he's needed anymore," the penguin said arrogantly. Tai wanted to know more of this Riley character so he asked, "What does he look like?" "Well his fur is grey, looks like a crocodile and he always sleeps," the penguin answered. Tai spotted the 'grey furred crocodile' and approached it. The penguin was right, the figure was inactive so Tai, being the daring person he is, decided to tickle it. Like he expected, it was wriggling in response to the tickle and eventually woke up. "What do you want," the figure said in a slurred tone as if he was drinking. In fact, Tai said to himself, "This guy must have had a bit too much sake," as soon as he heard that. But the figure said in response, "Wine actually. It's similar with the exact same effects. I love to drink that stuff, why else am I so tired?" "Okay," Tai said in a disturbed matter, "my name is Tai anyway. Why do you look like a hairy crocodile?" "I am not," the figure shouted, "I'm Riley the whale! Now don't ask because the whales you're familiar with are so advanced my race envied them!" Tai could only stare in a disturbed position.

Meanwhile at the waterfall planet, Izzy and Mimi were recovering from their landing. Earlier, they found a treasure chest on the edge of the main planet. I'm dead serious; there is a black hole beneath the planet. Anyway, Mimi was playing with an empty koopa shell while Izzy was figuring out the code on the chest. Mimi got bored later and threw the shell at the chest, being careful not to hit Izzy and have him get mad at her. Inexplicably, the chest opened revealing a launch star for the two kids to use. This brings us to the waterfall planet. Once there, Izzy began strategizing on how to climb it; this is proving difficult without his trademark laptop. "_Oh boy, this is proving to be more difficult than I thought,_" he thought. Mimi was also thinking but it was an entirely different matter; it was on Corey's riddle, and Izzy. Normally she doesn't do that but she needed answers. "_Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and he hurt people,_" she thought. It didn't really take long for her to realize something and when she did, she stopped thinking, got excited and let out an "Eeeeeeeee!" "What the heck was that," Izzy asked as he turned around in response, he was a bit annoyed due to the loud squee interrupting his thoughts. "Oh, sorry Izzy," Mimi apologised, "but I've answered Corey's riddle!" "What is it?" "Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and he hurt people. That's this place! And Corey said something about hurting people after being blinded by the bright light of Sirius so it all makes sense!" Mimi was shocked at her own words and continued, "I'm really starting to sound like you." "Yeah, that's a riddle I'd like to solve," said Izzy sarcastically, "this is a bit like The Hobbit."

Being the drunk he is, Riley woke up with a migraine from Mimi's squee. That's when one of the penguins approached him concerned. "What's wrong teacher," it asked. "I have yet another one of those headaches," Riley responded while rubbing his head, "I'll bet it was some dumb dolphin rubbing in its 'success'. This is what happens when you drink a lot of wine like I do. Now go play with the others." At that instant, the penguin went back in the lagoon to chase after Tai. Earlier on, Riley set a challenge for Tai in which he had to go underwater to fetch a golden koopa shell and return it. And now the penguins are all after him! "Luma, how do I ditch these guys," said Tai to the luma in his heart as he carried the golden shell. "Find a lesser shell to distract them," Luma answered, "you should also be thankful I can let you breathe underwater for longer than usual." So upon Luma's orders, Tai swam down for a red koopa shell. He grabbed it and threw it at the penguins to distract them so he can get away. Once Tai resurfaced, he took the golden shell to Riley who was starting to feel a bit better. "Well done Tai, or whatever it is, you proved yourself superior to my students," Riley was saying in defeat, "I only wanted to test your swimming but it's clear intellect trumps speed. Oh by the way, your trunks are gone." Sure enough Tai looked down to find he was completely nude. Angry, he went back down to reclaim the trunks from the penguins with Riley laughing all the way.

After that humorous detour, Riley showed Tai who got his trunks back a special cave under the 'toilet'. "What is this place," Tai asked as he looked around and found several barrels of some liquid, "and what are those?" "These are my barrels of plum juice," Riley answered, "I brought them with me when I escaped my home planet of Aquaria though not all of them made it. I don't want to talk about it. Now the barrels are airtight and their contents can only ferment after they have been opened so I leave one open at a time." Tai clearly did not want to hear the boring lecture and kicked a nearby fragile rock which shattered releasing a huge geyser. "But the real reason we're here is that this geyser leads to a power star," "Riley continued, "I go there for comfort when I'm stressed to have my aged plum juice. But there are serious consequences such as bad headaches which is why you can't have any!" "Wow, I'm sorry to hear that," said Tai sincerely, "Now let's go get that power star!" So Tai and Riley rode the powerful geyser to the power star.

Meanwhile, just above, Corey had only just managed to climb to the back but the power star he's finding is on top of a pillar covered in moss. "Great, just great," muttered Corey, "That pillar is too slippery even for my giant claws and these urchins and wigglers are not helping!" He was standing on what appears to be a fragile rock. Suddenly, it gave way to the geyser Tai and Riley were riding sending the dinosaur upwards. By chance, he managed to grab the power star on the way down and, since he's now bored, uses a newly formed launch star to return to the Hubble. But wait! We are far from done here! There are two power stars left! As for Tai and Riley, the road to the power star is still not an easy task. "What I forgot to mention was the only way to the power star is by knowing this planet very well." Indeed the whale that looks a bit like a hairy crocodile was right. This planet was a twisted system of stone platforms, thwomps, tox boxes and black holes. "Okay, this is weird," Tai exclaimed but had an idea, "how about I ride you and you do the rest." Riley agreed and carried Tai through the initial area of thwomps and tox boxes, then some moving platforms where there was a high risk of falling into a black hole and finally the last set of thwomps and tox boxes and the power star, all while Tai's sunscreen wore off and started to tan. When they got the power star, Tai said in concern, "we should leave now before I burn," and he and Riley took the launch star back to the Hubble.

What about Izzy and Mimi? Okay they are in the shade strategizing. "_This is getting nowhere,_" Mimi thought in frustration, "_not to mention that I'm very thirsty!_" Conveniently enough, she found a metallic barrel of plum juice and approached it. The barrel was closed so there is no fermentation but that also meant she cannot quench her thirst. So she used stuff like rocks and empty koopa shells to eventually open it (Izzy would have found a better way if he even knew of the barrel). After opening the barrel, Mimi proceeded to drink the plum juice from it. It didn't take long as the barrel was rather small and when she finished she got a bit of a belly sloshing with plum juice. However, Aquarian plums have a different nutrient content to Terran plums so Mimi went hyperactive from the juice (you can tell from her swirly eyes). Izzy finally turned around to the noises Mimi was starting to make and said, "Mimi, what's gotten into you?" Right after he said that, Mimi picked him up (she's hyper; anything can happen), ran across the water, up the waterfalls and through the icy planet where one island, she threw up in the air where he grabbed a power star that was just hanging there. However on the way down, Mimi was laughing having landed on her butt from lack of self-control. Izzy landed on Mimi's swollen belly causing her to spit out most of the plum juice she drank, reverting the girl to normal (though her belly started gurgling from whatever plum juice was retained but she ignored it). "That was fun Izzy," giggle Mimi as a launch star appeared, "we should do it again!" "Yeah sure," Izzy responded sarcastically as he and Mimi hopped in, "I just can't believe you cracked the puzzle on your own. And what's with the smile?" "I can't hold it anymore," Mimi said with glee and, just as they used the launch star, kissed the geek on the cheek. Izzy froze in shock from that as they went back to the Hubble.

How is Izzy going to cope with his predicament? What sort of drama could spawn here? What was Riley's backstory? Why all the plum juice? What was Noland doing on Izzy's laptop? What was Tai's sushi doing on Pluto? What has Reactor got planned? And where exactly is Kari? Find out next time on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Monty Python for the spam joke, J.R.R. Tolkien for the Hobbit and Ubisoft for the Rayman 3 references.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 10: Little Beauty and the Big Beast

Just because there are no more power stars in Beach Bowl Galaxy doesn't mean we're not done here. After Tai, Izzy, Mimi, Corey and Riley returned to the Hubble, the penguins and plum juice were left unprotected. This allowed Anthrax to claim the territory as his own, as if he didn't have enough. And the pile of coal was so full of himself that he began to sing his obnoxious song:

_Anthrax: Well, well, well. Look what I caught._

_A small bunch of penguins. Oh it's really hot._

_And no-one here to protect them. Hahahahaha!_

"Ah screw it, this does not warrant a song," Anthrax said arrogantly, "I am much too happy." True Anthrax was happy but the penguins were not. They were captured and locked in a cage. Riley really was stupid to leave them on their own without a babysitter. "You suck Anthrax," one of the braver penguins said, "one day you will meet your demise!" It was then; Reactor appeared with a desperate look on his face. "Sire, someone stole my sushi," he shouted but then got cynical at the sight of Anthrax, "You do realise that a huge load of radiation can give you sunburn." "Oh Reactor," retorted Anthrax, "that's a load of…" but then Anthrax ignited from Sirius's intense radiation. The coal monster reluctantly dived underwater and into a cave. But it wasn't just any cave. It was Riley's secret stash of plum juice. "HEY, REACTOR," Anthrax shouted in glee, "THERE"S PLUM JUICE HERE IN THIS NICE SHADY SPOT! WANT SOME?!" "Ugh, no," Reactor retorted before he return to his ship, the Dreadnought.

In the cockpit of the Dreadnought, Reactor was mumbling to himself, "That Anthrax. Why did a large ham like him get to rule a whole galaxy? I should do it but no, he had to take it." "Is there a problem sir," asked a pile of rocks resembling Anthrax. "No Bouldergeist" answered Reactor, "except that Anthrax is a bit of a fool sometimes. Don't mind me. Go hold Kari hostage." "With pleasure," said Bouldergeist before he teleported to unknown territory.

Meanwhile, on the mothership, Agent S was leading Sora out of the huge ship, dodging other guards and other forms of security, before stopping at the hangar. In it was only one miniship; why is going to be discussed in the next chapter. "What is that," Sora asked. "That is a miniship," Agent S explained, "Anthrax's minions use these to raid parts of the Milky Way. It's your only way out but there's one thing." Curious, Sora opened the door to the miniship and found a 2.1 metre tall phoenix tied up. The phoenix looked mighty aggressive; it even tried to bite Sora. "Woah, easy," Sora exclaimed as she jumped back, "And who is this?" "That would be Louis," Agent S explained, "a notorious terrorist with the biggest bounty in the Milky Way. Well he's a terrorist in Anthrax's eyes. But he's aggressive so be careful. No-one has ever found out how to transport him safely to Anthrax." "I'll say," Sora said, "I'll try not to provoke him. Now where's the manual?" While Sora was still working out such advanced technology, Louis was being very cheeky and used one of his feet to start the thing, trapping Sora inside and allowing the ship to fly out randomly. Agent S could only facepalm.

Meanwhile, back at the Hubble, Joe has set up a medical tent at the garage area to practice his medical skills once more. He wanted to compensate for his hypocritical behaviour from before. Currently his patients were Tai, Mimi and Riley. Tai was heavily sunburnt from Beach Bowl Galaxy and Joe felt really awkward having to rub the goggle head 'all over'. "Now Tai, this is my apology for my stupid behaviour from before," he said sternly, "but you should be more careful. Sunburns are serious business." "Yeah, whatevs," said Tai not caring about his current condition. Then Joe went over to Riley to ask a few questions. "What is your name," he asked. "My name is Riley," said Riley who was having a plum juice migraine/episode and laying down on his stomach, "and I like plum juice." "Look, you are a bad case of alcohol poisoning; you should lay off the wine for a while." "I can't help it; plum juice goes off pretty fast." Riley's speech was bit slurry and he fell asleep, much to Joe's chagrin.

Izzy was, as usual, on his laptop. He was removing some history that Noland made. Most of Noland's activities involve uploading his paintings onto Deviantart; Izzy was more concerned at the giant bug's more risqué businesses. All the while, Solana was watching from afar. Helion, her partner asked, "What the heck are you doing?" "Looking at Izzy," answered Solana; she was a hardcore Digimon fan, "Izzy is my favourite character; he will be mine!" "Right," said Helion in disbelief. Eventually, Izzy has 'cleaned up' his history but there's still some worry going on, so he went to Joe for information. "Uh, Joe," the geek asked, "can you help me with something?" "Oh, and I thought you were really smart," said Joe in disbelief, "nah just kidding. What do you want?" Izzy was hesitant and a few seconds later said, "Mimi kissed me." Joe froze in place and started to frown saying, "She did what?" "Kiss me! It was sickening!" "Did you get cooties," T.K. said suddenly from out of nowhere. "Oh don't pin this on a fictional disease," Izzy yelled at T.K. being stressed out. T.K. left in a huff, then Izzy having turned back to Joe continued, "And you know what the weirdest thing is?" He calmed down. "I kind of liked it. Why?" "Heh, must be puberty," Joe shrugged, "I know because I just started recently. Why do you think I went after some girls in the first place? But still, for shame man. I spent all that time getting to know Mimi." Joe walked away in a huff, leaving Izzy confused saying, "Oh could this get any worse?"

Actually, it can. Solana heard the whole thing and had a bone to pick with Mimi for 'being a boyfriend kisser'; she walked away from Helion towards Mimi. As soon as Solana was close to Mimi, she sternly said, "Hey, if you know what's good for you, you will stay away from Izzy!" But Mimi was not in the mood; actually she was sick. The plum juice in her belly did not like its host. Her belly was aching and gurgling loudly since she drank it and not even several vomiting sessions in the nearby bucket could help. "Ooh, go away," was really all she could say before spewing again. That's when Joe appeared and said to Solana, "Okay visiting time is over!" Solana was sent out but her feud has yet to conclude.

With Izzy off his laptop, Noland decided to talk to Tentomon again. He was telling some news. "Zis is getting ridiculous," Noland said frustrated, "Mimi's ill, Tai's sunburnt, Solana has an unreasonable feud and Izzy won't let me do my business on ze internet!" "Well the latter case does have a good purpose," Tentomon replied from the digital world, "Izzy does not wish for punishment just because there's evidence of naughty material on his laptop. That's where the evil digimon hang out." "Whatever, a new galaxy was found and Izzy wants me to go zere to find an antidote to food intolerance related illnesses as punishment," Noland kept ranting, "I don't know why Rosalina would not have a potion recipe book in her library and apparently some chick named Kari was located in zat new galaxy." "Did you say Kari?" said a cat-like figure with gloves who appeared on the mention of Kari's name, "I am Gatomon her digimon partner and I'd like to know why you brought her up." Noland needed help: he did not know who Kari was or what Gatomon had to do with her so he summoned Izzy to explain his journeys through the digital world with several other children as digidestined as well as some current issues such as Kari's possible capture. Not long after, Izzy used his digivice to download Gatomon to materialise her. "Kari's in trouble? We have to save her," exclaimed Gatomon. "You should be lucky Noland," explained Izzy, "Unlike most of our partners who are Rookie level by default, Gatomon is a Champion level by default which is stronger." Noland decided to gather Helion and Solana to help him. He also carried Tai because he is Kari's older brother. "Don't worry Doctor," Noland assured Joe, "I'll be gentle, he'll be gentle and odds are he'll be pleased to see Kari." "Well don't be too rough," Joe warned, "Tai is sunburnt so make sure he has a regular dose of aloe vera because I'm not doing it myself!" So Noland, Gatomon, Solana, Helion and Tai (who was sleeping) went to the kitchen portal to go to Ghostly Galaxy.

Ghostly Galaxy was orbiting Epsilon Eridani about 19 light years away. The area was 3 astronomical units from the star in an asteroid belt so it's rather dark and, you guessed it, spooky. Just as the party landed on a graveyard-like flat planet in front of what appears to be an upside-down mansion, Helion started complaining. "I hate to break it to you," he said cynically, "but you could have hired someone else. I'm solar powered and this is dark." "Oh stop whining," retorted Noland, "I picked you because Solana looked stressed and it made sense to recruit you, her partner. Just like I picked Tai for he's my friend as well as this Kari girl's brother and Gatomon for being her supposed partner. Where is she anyway?" Clearly, Gatomon ran across the bridge to the mansion so it made sense for the party to follow her. You know what doesn't make sense? The bridge was twisting at 180O so now the mansion that initially looked upside-down was now right-side-up. After they went in, Tai woke up and said, "Where are we? Why are we in Luigi's Mansion? Ow, my skin hurts all over." Noland, being faithful, laid down Tai to smother him in Aloe vera gel while saying to Helion and Solana, "You go on without me for now." So the two went off to catch up to Gatomon.

In a secret area, a sinister looking figure was watching everything our heroes did and said in an equally sinister tone, "Those fools. Do they even realise what a foolish move they've made? Well I have a surprise for them."

While Helion was fuelling himself up with highly efficient fluorescent light bulbs that glowed white, Solana managed to lure a boo that began stalking as she walked near a painting into another light killing it and freeing a key allowing for further passage into the mansion from up the stairs. Just as Helion got up to catch up to Solana and Gatomon, Noland finished covering Tai in Aloe vera and joined the rest of the gang is a cubic room when Tai noticed Gatomon and asked, "What the heck are you doing here outside the digital world?" Gatomon having picked up an orange star shard replied, "Oh, I'm just here to save Kari. Why?" Tai froze not from the sunburn but from the mention of his little sister before asking again, "Is she still alive?" "Yeah I guess so," the feline digimon answered again, "The oversized bug said that she'd be here." It was then Tai jumped out of Noland's grasp and landed on his feet shouting with glee, "Sweet! I feel so relieved! Let's go!" So he ran up the walls and on the roof via special curved platforms to find four more orange star pieces before he and Gatomon used the newly formed launch star to climb up even further. Unfortunately, Tai accidentally dropped his can of Aloe vera gel and left it from overexcitement leaving Noland to pick it up and mutter, "Dummkopf," to himself.

The path that both Tai and Gatomon took when using the launch star went around the back attracting any star bits that got ejected by smaller planets onto a balcony on the right hand side. Both figures looked through the window and spotted Kari who woke up to tapping noises on the glass. "Tai, Gatomon, what are you doing here," the small girl asked having noticed whoever's outside. "We are here to save you," Gatomon replied, "and your brother is glad to see you." The cat-like digimon quickly left for a way in. Tai was exactly as excited as he made it out to be. "Don't worry Kari," he said, "I'll make my way in there and put you in my arms. I actually thought you died! Hang on, I'm coming in!" "Uh Tai, you may want to be careful. There's a monster here," Kari warned. No response. Tai has already left for a way in. He found a locked door that opened from a key that Gatomon just found and went in unaware of three separated dangers: boos, the mysterious monster and not having the aloe vera on him.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Noland, Helion and Solana find themselves in a library. It is possible here to walk on the walls and ceiling as well as the floor, which is exactly what Noland is doing while looking for a recipe book of antidotes. On the floor, Helion notices that Solana is miffed and approaches her saying, "What's wrong?" Solana replied, "I'm a huge fan of Izzy; in fact I want to get to know him and be his girlfriend but that twerp Mimi has stolen him from me." Noland heard this and said without looking at Solana, "She didn't know. Get off her back. She's really nice. Now where was I. Oh here we go." Noland found the book he was looking for; 'The Book of Antidotes to Poisons relating to Fruit'. Noland held the book on the tip of his abdomen and said, "Well I have ze book, now we must find Tai and heal him before…" Noland noticed some boos go through the ceiling and finished, "ze boos get him. Follow zat boo!"

On the top floor where Tai is, there are boos everywhere and they are attacking him. Gatomon is fighting them off but to no avail. Luckily, Helion burst through the floor and scared them off by emitting light that he had gathered from frequent sunbathing. Amidst the chaos, Tai is on the floor immobilised. Noland walked up to him and applied the aloe vera cream healing the boy. Tai got up, faced Noland and said, "Thanks, I needed that." "Don't worry, it was nozing," Noland replied. Suddenly, Helion said, "We can't stay here goodbye." He and Solana left the mansion for deep space. And now silence. It didn't help that Gatomon went through the metal bars assuming Kari is there. Then Tai saw a white mushroom and walked over to it. "Eat it, only then will you go through the bars," said Luma from within Tai's heart. Tai hesitantly ate the mushroom and turned into boo form. "Alright," he exclaimed, "This is awesome. I'm coming Kari." So Tai flew through the bars carrying the aloe vera just in case. "Well I'll just wait here zen," said Noland. The giant bug sat there waiting.

We now enter the last room that has two cells. One of which is occupied by a young girl. She was a brunette with a yellow shirt and pink pants. And she sat there, waiting, for her brother to save her. If you hadn't guessed already, that is Kari, Tai's younger sister. "Sheesh this is boring," she said, but noticed her feline digimon partner just outside the cell. Kari said upon slight shock, "Oh hey Gatomon, I haven't seen you in quite a while. What brings you here?" Gatomon replied, "Well I just wanted to see you, oh and your brother's here." Just then, Tai in his boo form, came in leaving Kari in huge shock. "Tai what happened," she fearfully asked but a light shone over the boy turning back to normal. Kari sighed and said, "Thank goodness you're still alive." Tai began to explain everything he did in the mansion including the aloe vera, Noland, the Boo Mushroom and power stars finishing off with, "And that's why I'm here. Come Kari, I have missed you." "But I'm in a cell," Kari pointed out the obvious, "and you might want to be careful. There's a huge beast here." "Kari, you don't seem scared," Tai said in suspicion when a loud growl came from nearby. The beast Kari was talking about had entered the room. It was huge, had four pillar-like legs, huge canines, pink fur, red eyes, a small tail, two sharp horns on its head and what appears to be Noland on the sole of its foot.

"I can't believe you killed Noland," Tai shouted angrily at the monster. He charged at the giant beast. "Wait! You can't do that," Kari shouted to her brother but it was too late, he had already punched the beast. But all it gave Tai was a sore fist and the monster retaliated by stomping on him. Gatomon cried, "Kari! The monster killed your brother! Let me avenge him for you!" But Kari put on a stern look and said to the beast, "Leroy. Get off my brother." The beast known as Leroy replied obediently, "Sorry Kari," and got off Tai. Suddenly a voice cried out, "Hey, What's with all ze ruckus?" It was Noland who somehow entered the room but all pale and squishy. Kari said in disgust, "Ew a bug, and he's naked." Noland ignored that and gave a 1-up mushroom to Tai who recovered. Tai noticed Noland alive and cried with relief, "Noland! I thought you died! What happened and why are you soft-looking?" Noland replied, "Well I had to shed my old exoskeleton, it's only natural. Too bad I had to put on my life support again when I noticed zis big monster smashing through ze bars where you were so I followed. It must have stepped on my old exoskeleton. I'm guessing boos must maintain zis place." After a moment of silence, Leroy finally introduced himself, "Hello, my name is Leroy. This is my home. Kari's my friend. More later. You are?" "I'm Tai and that's my new friend Noland," Tai introduced himself and Noland, "We need to get you out." "But how? I'm in a cell," Kari asked when Noland threw a bit of Boo Mushroom in her mouth turning the girl into boo form. "Wow, this is cool," Kari said as she flew around the room. Tai ate another piece and joined his sister in the fun before saying to Noland, "Bud, you're on your own now, I need to show Kari the Hubble." So both brother and sister flew back to the Hubble.

After a few minutes, Noland asked Leroy, "Are zere any power stars besides ze one I found earlier?" Leroy replied in simple, yet haiku-like speech, "There is one more. It is on stony platform. Evil monster guards it." "Then that makes you the good monster," Gatomon jokingly said, "and me too." A while later, our trio returned to the start area to discuss pathways to the power star when a voice said, "Hey come over here." It came from the other surface so the trio flipped through the planet to encounter Izzy. "I see you made a new ally," the geek said upon noticing Leroy, he was used to seeing weird sights no thanks to the Digital World, "Now I came here to see how you're going. I passed Tai and Kari on the way here but I knew there were still some power stars left. Just follow me and I'll explain." So our group went to the mansion again, this time it was right side up and the bridge was instead wavy.

Once back inside, the crew noticed that the stairs were gone; five statues, a painting and the fireplace remain. This caused a spark in Leroy's mind. "Oh, I remember now," he said, "fireplace leads to secret passage." Then Izzy took notice of the painting and the black boo came out of it causing him to say, "Prodigious! This is like Super Mario Galaxy. It's like a futuristic version of Super Mario 64 and is only found with Rosalina. The boos themselves are explosive; grab their tongues and throw them at the statues to break them." Sticking to Izzy's strategy, the others used the bomb boos to destroy the statues and reveal an opening behind the fireplace with a launch star. They used it to fly to the first of two cracked wall planets. It was then Leroy said in warning, "When we reach star, defeat evil monster. It is Bouldergeist. Looks like Anthrax." He then ate a nearby scuttlebug. While Gatomon and Izzy used sling pods to reach the launch star, Leroy was simply too heavy to use one so Noland had to carry him to it. Once the quartet reached the second cracked wall, Noland dropped Leroy, approached Izzy and asked, "I was wondering, why are you here?" "To see if you have the book yet," Izzy answered when he noticed 'The Book of Antidotes to Poisons relating to Fruit' before continuing, "Good choice. That's exactly what we need." The two went on to help their comrades gather five blue star chips to form pull stars that lead to a bouncy ball planet. Of course, Gatomon, Izzy and Noland were having fun until Leroy popped it with his weight and sent them all flying up to the stony platform Leroy was talking about.

Izzy said to Noland, "I will take the book if you will," before taking the book off the bug saying to the others, "I have to go. I don't want to keep Mimi waiting." He bowed and took the launch star back to the Hubble just as a bunch of rocks clumped together to form a demonic head; that was Bouldergeist. Noland muttered "Dummkoph," referring to Izzy ditching them. Suddenly, Bouldergeist said loudly, "What are you doing here?! I thought the mansion prison was inescapable! No matter. I'll just kill you instead!" Bouldergeist summoned some rocks and threw them at the party. Most were grey but the black ones released bomb boos. Noticing this, Gatomon realised something and said, "Goodness! Maybe the bomb boos will help us out!" She proceeded to grab the bomb boos' tongues and threw them at the monster, breaking off part of him. Bouldergeist tried the rocks again before being hit again, then he raised some menhirs in retaliation. Gatomon managed to evade them and Leroy ran out of the way but Noland was struck. Gatomon ran to Noland's aid while Bouldergeist tried the rocks one more time. This time there were also gold rocks which released coins used to heal Noland while Leroy chucked another bomb boo at Bouldergeist revealing a demonic spirit. Gatomon re-joined Leroy to throw one more bomb boo at him immobilising the boss. Leroy began to tell more of his story, "Bouldergeist works of Anthrax. He kidnapped Kari. Took her to mansion. Hoped I would eat her as I am also a monster. But she tamed me. Now we're friends." Leroy stopped telling his story so Gatomon could comment, "Wow. Kari must have been really strong by heart to tame you just as she tamed me. Well actually I wanted to find her but she knew I wanted a partner when everyone else saw me as evil because I work for Myotismon. It's a long story really."

Suddenly, the spirit appeared again and regathered the rocks again. Bouldergeist had returned and he said, "Okay fun's over! You've hurt me for the last time." He sounded like he was really going to do them in. The boss gathered more rocks to make hands out of. "Any last words before I send you to oblivion?" he said antagonizingly. Gatomon proceeded to try the usual strategy again but the bomb boos instead hit the hands. Two hits took out each hand but they regenerated too quickly. Bouldergeist proceeded to punch Gatomon, wounding her enough to revert to her Rookie form, Salamon, a cream coloured puppy-like digimon. Leroy retaliated by charging the boss but the latter just threw him over leaving only a helpless Noland. Confident of his victory, Bouldergeist boasted to Noland, "I guess this battle is mine Noland. Master Reactor told me about you." Noland was shivering in fear as he was backed to the edge of the arena. Bouldergeist continued, "Face it. I have won. And you're just a loser who lived only to paint." Noland's mind replayed recent memories that contradicted Bouldergeist's insult before gathering up his courage and said, "It's true zat I have spent my life painting and putting it up on Deviantart. It's a long story zat you will never hear. For zanks to Tai and his friends, I have realised zat zere is a wider world out zere. Zis world exists to be explored!" Just then, Noland began glowing purple. "Noland digivolve to Ampmon!" Noland had digivolved into the powerful digimon known as Ampmon. "This… This cannot be," said Bouldergeist in shock and fear. Ampmon then said, "Zis is the power of knowledge! Iron claw!" Ampmon punched Bouldergeist's hand breaking it. Salamon and Leroy woke and stood aside for space. Ampmon quickly punched the other of Boulgergeist's hands and used both claws to smash the head, releasing the spirit once again. Bouldergeist in spirit form pleaded, "Please. Don't hurt me. Have mercy." But Ampmon could not listen. He went "Volt shocker!" and electricity from his tail tip struck the spirit before he could gather anymore rocks and annihilated him.

It was then Salamon walked up to Ampmon and said, "You did it! How did you get to be so powerful?" Ampmon replied, "I don't really know how it happened." That's when Reactor teleported in and said in frustration, "You destroyed my minion! Master Anthrax will not like that. No matter. My armada is on its way to destroy Ampera." Ampmon retorted, "I always zought it was gone until now. Zere is no way you can destroy it for real." "I can and I will," returned Reactor, "Did you like my surprise? I'll see you never!" Reactor teleported away. After a moment of silence, Leroy asked, "What happens now?" Noland having been reverted to normal said, "We should head back to the Hubble to assess some stategy." Leroy and Salamon agreed and the trio took the power star left behind and used the launch star to return to the Hubble.

Will Reactor carry out his mass genocide? Why has Noland digivolved without Tentomon? Will Tai recover from his sunburn? Will Mimi recover from her ills? Where are Solana and Helion? How will everyone react to Leroy? And will Sora put up with Louis? Find out on the next trilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Nintendo for additional Mario, Tim Burton for the Nightmare Before Christmas, and Ubisoft for the Rayman references.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 11: Reactor's Armada

Ah, the mothership, run by the malevolent Anthrax. Surprisingly, it seems rather calm. "REACTOR!" Never mind that. There was a meeting going on and Anthrax doesn't seem too happy. "Tai would get locked up in that mansion huh?" he said sceptically, "I don't think you counted on special powerups. And now he has escaped along with Kari with ghost powers! What do you have to say for yourself!?" Reactor retorted, "I honestly don't know how the powerups got there!" He paused for a bit then continued, "Never mind! In spite of Bouldergeist's demise, I had a backup plan. A Plan B if you will. I'm the captain of an armada that will raid the home planet of one of his allies, Planet Ampera. The enemy's attempts to stop it will be a distraction so that even if I fail, you will have a surprise plan ready." Reactor stopped, then Anthrax broke the silence, "Reactor, you have read my mind. Please don't fail me. You may now leave." Reactor left the room so that Anthrax could carry up his back up. "Am I going to be involved in anything," said a mysterious figure that walked in. "Yes my fellow minion," Anthrax said to the figure, "It's going to be a big one."

Meanwhile in deep space, the spaceship Sora was using was out of control no thanks to Louis. The ship eventually crashed into the crystal orb planet of Space Junk Galaxy. Thankfully, Sora came out alive yet wounded thanks to the ejector seat. Sora had a bone to pick with the phoenix so she approached him and said sternly, "What was that for? We could both have died!" When only muffles came out of the bird's mouth, Sora decided to untie him revealing a magnificent creature with gold-crimson feathers and a blue belly. It was then Louis repeated himself, "I said I wanted to escape! I didn't see the controls!" "Just shut up," Sora said not listening. This caused Louis to retort, "Well in that case, leave me alone!" Louis used one of his feet to throw Sora into deep space only for her to land on a yoshi head planet full of goombas. Sora got rid of the goombas just fine when a power star went out of the planet and into her hands. While Sora was perplexed by this, a yellow luma came out of nowhere and explained everything, "That is a power star, our life blood." "Alright, this is getting ridiculous," Sora said in confusion, "Who are you and what is going on here?" The luma continued, "I am part of a race called the lumas. Rosalina, Queen of the Stars, is my mother. We are a magical species as you shall see." The luma gave magical energy to Sora before continuing, "from now on, you can breathe in space, talk to alien races and use magical powers." It disappeared, then Sora said to herself, "Wow, this is cool." Then a launch star appeared nearby. Sora didn't hesitate to use to go to who knows where.

Meanwhile back at the Hubble, Joe was hard at work on making the antidote to Mimi's ills. He is using 'The Book of Antidotes to Poisons relating to Fruit' for instructions on the antidote of Aquarian plums. "Okay, just add 5 grams of mulberry leaves and then 25 millilitres of coconut milk and stir for…" He couldn't finish that sentence because Riley was drooling on the text half-asleep. Joe was getting annoyed so he said, "Riley! Go drool somewhere else! I'm making an antidote for Mimi." Riley walked away without saying a word because he was too drunk on plum juice. Joe was still sort of able to read the recipe when he got to the point where he had to add 3 drops of Caulis whale drool. "Hey Riley," Joe asked back to the drunk, "what is a Caulis whale?" Riley didn't walk too far to hear that so he replied semi-slurred, "That's me, idiot." Joe realised something; he could just use the drool on the book and he did.

Meanwhile in the library, Kari was gushing over how cute Kyle is so much, he is starting to get irritated. "Aw aren't you cute," she went, "why don't I give you takiyakis?" "Why don't I shoot mustard at your face," Kyle responded coldly, "I'm annoyed enough at human girls as it is." "Well that's not very nice. Why don't you talk over it with me?" "Heck no." Suddenly, Rosaline entered to see the commotion to ask, "what's wrong?" "The little guy is being rude," Kari replied. "My name is Kyle," Kyle responded, "and I'm annoyed at this little girl." Rosalina thought is over before saying, "Well Kyle, why don't we talk it over in the near future." She left.

"So you're a hippy," Corey asked Luna near the fountain. "Yes," she replied, "I believe all the animals on Earth should deserve the same respect as humans even if not the same rights. Why do you ask?" "I respect all the animals on Ignaria as well," Corey answered back before going sombre, "or did until Anthrax ruined everything." "Now you understand why I became a Pioneer. I want to take down Anthrax and liberate all the animals and plants from pollution. That is why I'm also a vegetarian. Though Kyle is so mean!" "What did he do to you?" "I just thanked him for saving me before going ape on me." Luna started crying.

Near the terrace, Izzy was listening to Noland on recent events. "So in order to take down Bouldergeist," Noland explained, "I simply digivolve just like zat. Why did zat happen when I didn't absorb anymore digimon?" "I have a theory to try to explain all this," Izzy started to explain, "After reverting to normal and liberating Tentomon, you have retained some of his data and, in effect, the ability to digivolve. I will test it on more subjects to see what happens." Izzy then re-uploaded Gatomon having digivolved back to champion form before connecting a machine to Leroy to download Gatomon to the big beast. Once that is done, Izzy continued, "Now if Leroy feels threatened, he would digivolve. But it's always good to repeat the experiment on different subjects when I have time." Suddenly a luma came over and said, "Guys! The third Pioneer has been found!"

The whole crew (except Mimi who was still sick) gathered at the front area for plans to be discussed. "I brought you all here," Edward announced, "to announce that the third Pioneer has been found…" A long pause follow then Edward finished up with, "in an invasion front near Ampera willing to destroy it." The audience gasped, especially Noland who exclaimed, "Zat's my home! I did not want to be reminded of Reactor's plans! I'm going!" Just then, Rosalina filled in for Edward, "Very well then but bring Tai with you; it is his duty." "But isn't he sunburnt," Matt pointed out but Tai showed up to respond, "Not anymore." Tai's skin had rejuvenated and then he explained, "My skin was peeling when I returned and went on for ages until I felt better." "Excellent," Edward resumed his role, "now you can attract some ladies like never before." Everyone laughed at old Ed for that remark though you have to admit Tai does now look cuter. "Enough," Rosalina proclaimed, "If I may, I will also send Kyle to have him let out is anger and Leroy to give him fighting experience." The two aforementioned aliens, Kyle more reluctantly, agreed and they, Noland and Tai all went to the portal to the kitchen to enter its last portal to Ampera.

Ampera is a Super-Earth planet (those a bit larger than Earth) with a very thick atmosphere and orbits the white star of Vega about 25 light years away. When the team got there (hooray for portals!) they took note the sheer size of the planet. "Uh, Noland," Tai told the bug, "that looks like a gas giant." "Ze atmosphere is zick," Noland responded, "It allows for great flight but zere is a surface. On ze occasional moment the clears up, my races gets to see ze great rings." Sure enough, Ampera has a magnificent ring system similar to Saturn; the team is standing on one the rock fragments of the rings. The atmosphere has somewhat of a greenish tinge. Suddenly, a laser beam destroyed another rock fragment and the shockwave knocked the team down. "What was noise," Leroy asked while getting back up. "Reactor," Noland muttered in response; the Dreadnaught had arrived from a wormhole with several thousand smaller spaceships.

The first spaceship had electrogoombas which Tai spun away, simple as that. Kyle found a treasure chest hoping for star bits but there only three green lumas in it. "Greetings travellers," said the first one, "I'm the leader of the Viridian Crusade and I would like to congratulate you on your courage." Unimpressed, Kyle said to Tai, "They're all yours bro." Kyle stepped out and Tai stepped in just the second green luma said, "Don't listen to that loon, I'm the leader." Tai was perplexed and was silent while the third one said, "No, I'm the alpha." "Okay, who's the leader here," Tai asked getting irritated. The three green lumas went on arguing over the leadership of the 'Viridian Crusade' until Kyle fired his S.C.A.M.P.P. at them in frustration, shutting them up. Then Tai began to ask them, "Can you please handle this democratically and what are you doing here?" "Alright we'll share the power," answered the green lumas in unison, "as for manner of being here it's a long story. We can follow you if you want." "Okay," Tai accepted and the lumas started following him as they and the rest of the team used a cannon to go to the next spaceship.

The second space ship had some magikoopas which posed quite a challenge. So Noland digivolved to Ampmon to take them down and scare off some bullet bills as the team made their way to the third spaceship. That one had Wigglers and a mandibug all exterminated by Kyles weapon fire. A lumalee appeared when the foes were gone. These are special lumas that sell stuff for star bits. This one said, "Step right up for this bag of power-ups!" Tai took a look inside so that he wasn't being conned and well it was a legitimate sale so Tai asked, "How much is it?" "Only ten star bits," the lumalee replied. Tai gave it the star bits from beating up foes and got the bag in the transaction. After this the lumalee ate the star bits and flew away. "That's almost like me," Kyle pointed out. "What did you do," Leroy asked Kyle. "Back when I was a hermit I offered to help out other people for star bits for subsistence." Once that was over, the team used a launch star to infiltrate the Dreadnaught.

Reactor had thousands of spaceships in his armada; they lined up to surround Ampera and prepared to open fire. "This will be too easy," Reactor chuckled to himself in the Dreadnaught's cockpit, "the inhabitants can't see past that thick, soupy atmosphere; they'll never know what hit them." Wrong! The wyvernflies (Noland's race) of Ampera had already progressed to using space technology so they could detect the threat beforehand and counteract with space weaponry of their own. "Crud," Reactor cursed, "I forgot this was an advanced race! No matter. I have H-bombs so they'll never know what hit them." There was giggling behind him and a voice spoke, "Don't they know that as well?" "Well if you're so smart then why don't you…" Reactor turned around and was surprised to see Tai and his team, his worst enemies. Tai had assumed bee form, Noland was Ampmon, Kyle armed himself with a B.A.J.O.O.K.A. (Blasts Aloft Juicy Overfilled Orange Kartons Amazingly) and Leroy stood there confused with three green lumas hovering over him.

"Noland's kind is advanced enough to see H-bombs coming," Kyle assumed to Reactor, "and another thing, nuclear power is overrated. 2x4 technology is where the money is." "Well it still won't revive your girlfriend," Reactor retorted. Looking like he had been slapped on the face upon hearing that, Kyle ruthlessly fired orange cartons at Reactor, who deflected them with a force field. One carton struck a wall revealing a volcano-like figure with what appears to be a teenage boy, another struck Tai stripping him of the bee form, and the rest were splattered randomly for Leroy to lick up. Tai took notice of the figures and went after them only for Reactor to jump in his way. "Where do you think you're going," Reactor asked in disapproval. "I need to see what's in there," Tai replied, "and you can't stop me." Tai took out a Boo Mushroom and used it to become boo form and thus by turning invisible does he evade Reactor.

"What… how… who," the machine babbled in confusion before getting straight again, "Never mind." Reactor shot radioactive bullets at Ampmon who retaliated with a lightning bolt from his tail. The resulting explosion clouded the field a bit and Reactor could not see Leroy the monster topple him for orange juice. "Alright now it's time for the heavy artillery," Reactor said as he modified his gun-like arms into uranium fists and went all out melee with Ampmon. "I didn't want to do this," Ampmon said charging up his claws, "but you leave me no choice!" So the two get into a brawl. And all the time Kyle was mercilessly firing all kinds of ammo. Leroy noticed this and asked Kyle, "What is going on?" Kyle whispered into Leroy's ear of a past trauma Reactor reminded him of. Leroy was shocked and said, "That's bad. Robot needs to pay!"

Kyle had been distracted so Reactor having taken down Ampmon devolving the digimon back to Noland shot the midget down with a bullet. "Now it's just you and me, you dumb beast," Reactor confidently said. This only angered the already ticked off monster even more. "No one hurts my friends," Leroy said coldly. Reactor looked slightly intimidated saying cynically, "You don't even know the pipsqueak. He needs to get over it." Leroy charged at Reactor with all his might and growled, "I don't care! You hurt friend! I won't kill you but I will punish you! NO-ONE DIES ON MY WATCH!" It was then Leroy started glowing pink a little bit. The three green lumas saw this and were naturally attracted to it and fused with Leroy giving him extra energy. That's right, it was Gatomon's data acting up and with "Leroy digivolve to…" he began to digivolve.

During digivolution, Leroy became elongated into a serpent shape, his limbs became more tiger-like, the fur turned from pink to a lighter hue, and the head lost all horns, ears became floppy, snout became dog-like, tusks lost and the red eyes became golden. Transformation complete, Leroy finished off with, "Falkormon!" After the light dimmed down, the serpentine digimon, Falkormon, took the place of Leroy. Noland and Kyle woke up just in time to see the marvel. "I am all powerful," said Falkormon, "leave at once or else." Reactor realised that his opponent is way too powerful and simply said, "You know what, I'm out of here." He left just like that. Noland said, "Shame that the new guy didn't do anything; at least Ampera will be safe." "True that," Kyle responded having calmed down a little bit, "Reactor is such a coward. How dare he bring that up!?" At that time, someone nudged Kyle causing him to say, "What now," and turn around only to find a figure in a black cloak and a Guy Fawkes mask.

A while later, Tai having reverted re-emerged from the hole from earlier now with a teenage boy and a volcano figure behind him. "Who are those two," Noland asked. "And who is that cloaked weirdo," Kyle asked about the cloaked, masked figure who gestured them to get out. This led Tai to say, "Maybe later at the Hubble; I think it's time to back. Let's go Leroy." Tai immediately recognised Falkormon as Leroy simply from the pink fur; the beastly digimon said, "I'll stay. Ampera needs me. Cloaked guy help us. Take big star. Farewell." Tai and the others were disheartened by this shocking news of self-sacrifice. Nevertheless, they grabbed the grand star and used the launch star to leave the Dreadnaught and go back to the Hubble. As the battle between the Pollution Squad armada and Amperan defence force escalates, the masked figure was riding Falkormon and summoned huge solar mirrors while 1812 Overture started playing. As the music hits the crescendo, Falkormon yelled, "Megabeam," and fired a powerful beam of energy at the Dreadnaught and the mirrors started to reflect the sunlight of Vega back at the enemy spaceships, annihilating them. Then Falkormon's beam strikes the Dreadnaught, badly damaging it and all the people of Ampera celebrate their victory as the music closes.

When Tai, Noland, Kyle and the two unknown figures arrived at the Hubble, the grand star they were carrying fused with the telescope to create even more energy. The volcano-like figure created a small lava-based planet with a steam generator next to the water planet. The heat of the lava planet boiled some of the water into steam to run the generator before condensing at the water planet again. This caused the solar panel to expand past the kitchen to create a bedroom and a portal for it. Everyone gathered at Tai's crew when the brunette teenage boy wearing jeans, black shirt and red jacket started to speak. "Hello guys. My name is Terra," said the new guy named Terra, "and this is my partner Vulcanus." "Greetings," said Vulcanus. Kari then said in curiosity, "Where's Leroy? I want to tell him about my hunt for power stars. I'm helping Tai." Tai said in sombre, "Sorry sis, but Leroy stayed back to sacrifice himself." Upon hearing this, tears started welling up in Kari's eyes. This can't be good.

Will Leroy/Falkormon be alright? Why did Reactor flee right after seeing Falkormon? What was the event Kyle wished to forget? I Izzy right about his theories? Could anymore aliens digivolve? Where is Sora going? What's up with the green lumas? And who is the fourth Earth Pioneer? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mention goes to Ubisoft for the Rayman, Mr Warburton for the KND, Alan Moore for the V for Vendetta and Michael Ende for the NeverEnding Story references.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 12: Enter Sid

Within the mothership, Anthrax was getting miffed. He had summoned Gasser to discuss the matters. "Gasser," he said furiously, "This is not going as planned! All I wanted was to simply invade Earth and plunder it but no I have to put up with serious opposition, SERIOUS I TELL YOU! No matter what I try, I can't seem to kill that pesky boy and it doesn't help that his army's growing!" "Calm down sire," Gasser said to shut Anthrax, "You still have this. I eavesdropped on you talking about some secret weapon." "HOW DARE YOU INVADE MY PRI… wait you're right. There's that one guy I forgot to mention. Say hello to Sid!" Immediately after Anthrax said his words, a large plant-like figure emerged from the shadows. It had ceramic pots for shoes (roots are its feet), 6 arm-like leaved branches (yes they function like arms) and a flower head with eye stalks for, well, a head. "You called boss," the plant called Sid said. "Gasser I want to introduce you to my finest plan yet, an assassin," Anthrax described Sid to Gasser, "He can wield six swords at once masterfully, can see all over and is most powerful in light." "That's great boss," Gasser said in amazement, "but I have a plan of my own; I have located Agent S, the brat who let Sora escape, and convinced her to kill Tai with the promise of release." "Wait that's my plan," Anthrax interrupted, "never mind. A double dose of assassination risk is doubled now so we can't lose. Sid, you know what to do." "Yes master," Sid said obediently.

Sora was flying through interstellar space before ending up in the ruins of the Battlerock. "Wow, look at this place," Sora said to herself, "it could use a clean-up big time." "I'll say," said a robot-like figure causing Sora to jump in surprise, "I don't like mess!" "Look, if it'll make you feel any better," Sora said offering to help, "maybe I can help you out." "You will? Oh yes! Now take this broom and let's get cracking!" Sora only wanted to help out the robot a little bit but what she didn't expect was the gargantuan workload involved in cleaning up the Battlerock ruins. For 3 hours they were at it until Sora complained, "Okay this is getting a bit much." "Oh no," the robot said, "you can't quit until all the work is done!" Sora was approaching breaking point when Louis the phoenix came onto the scene. "Louis what are you doing here," Sora cried. "I felt like flying when I saw you by chance," Louis answered, "but then I noticed you were working for a gearmo. Uh uh, they're nothing but trouble, work may be important but they take it so seriously they don't even know how to take breaks. Here, watch this." Louis let out a loud screech that summoned some Lumas who instantly cleared that region of space of anymore debris. The gearmo noticed this and said, "The whole place is clean. Here you can have this I found it in a chest." Then the gearmo took out a power star and gave it too Sora for doing more manual work herself. Louis was looking at it but Sora snapped, "Get your own," before using a launch star to go somewhere else but Louis for some reason followed her.

Back at the Hubble, Joe was just finishing the antidote for Mimi. "Phew, at last," said Joe in accomplishment, "I made my first potion! Dad will be so proud." Just then he saw Riley making a fool of himself by hitting his on the wall repeatedly while drunk. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Riley," Joe said suddenly agitated as he abandoned his fine project to stop the whale from hurting himself. That's when Izzy saw the completed potion, seeing this as an opportunity to heal Mimi and win her over; well at least that's what his developing hormones were thinking. "Izzy," Noland called out from a distance, "aren't you going to do more tests?" "Uh, later Noland," Izzy called back, "I'm just in the middle of something." And with that he proceeded to pour the potion into Mimi's mouth but before a single drop could be consumed, Solana grabbed hold of Izzy and said sternly, "I don't think so, you're mine." Izzy struggled to escape but as he did, he split antidote into Mimi's mouth by accident. This caused Mimi to recover from her illness. "No other girl can have you, especially not that harlot," Solana haughtily said as Mimi heard all of this in the recovered state. Offended, she retorted, "Don't you dare talk flak about me. He's known me more than he has you." "Oh, you want to talk tough," Solana said competitively, "bring it on!" Mimi braced herself as Solana lunged at her but Terra refrained the blonde girl from doing any damage and dragged her away. Mimi sighed in relief.

Now don't get me wrong, Rosalina has several game consoles powered by tidal forces, sunlight and lava and it shows. Matt, Tai, T.K., and Corey were all playing Star Fox 64 on the Nintendo 64 while Kyle had to watch to his chagrin (BTW Corey was using his feet to hold the controller as a dinosaur). They were all going through this first level when Peppy the Rabbit said, "Do a barrel roll," causing Corey to giggle a bit. "Hahaha," Corel laughed while doing silly gestures, "Do a barrel roll. I love that line it sounds so silly." "Some people have issues," Matt sighed to himself when suddenly Terra burst in to have a big talk with Solana. "Solana, what were you thinking," Terra interrogated the blonde girl, "I thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend." "Are you two together," T.K. asked curiously. "Yes, we are," Solana answered before turning back to Terra, "Sorry about that. I guess my fandom to Izzy got to me." "Good," Terra said in forgiveness before getting a bit excited, "now kiss me." And before we all knew it Terra and Solana were kissing behind the couch; nothing naughty, it was just kissing. Corey, Matt and T.K. chose to ignore it but Tai got fed up and gave his controller to Kyle and left the games room.

Outside, Mimi was gleefully hugging Izzy. "Eeee! I feel so much better now," she said happily, "and I can finally hug you again!" "Right first of all," Izzy muffled, "get off me." Mimi released Izzy and then Izzy said in a calmer tone, "And secondly, I don't suppose you'll ask for Riley's plum juice again will you?" "I won't now," Mimi said in disgust, "they tasted yucky anyway. Hey why don't we celebrate my recovery with a concert, starring me?" "Vat'l nebr happn," Riley was saying drunk, "Yur just a litl gerl." Mimi got cross at this but Joe stepped in to say, "Ah ignore him. Riley has a tendency to talk nonsense while drunk." Surely enough, Riley was making some rather silly movements before falling unconscious and starting to sleep.

A while later, Kari flew back from somewhere. Tai saw this, approached his sister and asked worriedly, "Kari where were you, I was worried sick." "Aw no need to whine over this," Kari said calmly, "I just flew back to Corey's house near the Moon to pick up a power star that you missed." Tai face palmed at this revelation then Kari asked, "Hey where's Leroy." "Oh yeah about that, he sacrificed himself in the name of good," Tai said sombrely, "Sorry sis." Tears began to form in Kari's eyes and rushed over to inside the phantom room; I think it's apparent what she's doing there. Bored, Tai said, "Shall we get more power stars?" "Sounds like a plan," Joe answered. And the two were going to the Bedroom portal when Rosalina showed up and said, "I see you're off to get more power stars?" "Yeah," Tai responded, "what do you think?" "I think you should take Riley as a third companion," Rosalina replied. "What!? No way," Joe retorted, "I'm not taking that irritation along!" But Rosalina said nothing and walked away. Joe thought, "_Screw it,_" as he dragged Riley over with Tai to the portal. Inside, there were now 4 doors, not 3 but only one was open, Gusty Garden Galaxy so logically they went in that way.

Gusty Garden Galaxy is a garden environment that orbits Pollux about 33.8 light years away. If you can look closely, you could see a gas giant orbiting the star but I digress. Anyway, Sid the assassin set this galaxy up as his headquarters. It wasn't long before he reached his home in the hedge ring planet with thorns when his phone was ringing. "What do you want," Sid asked the caller as he answered the phone. "You know what I want," Anthrax said from the mothership, "if you see anyone with brown hair, blue shirt and goggles, kill him!" "I have a better idea," Sid declared, "when I see that guy I'm going to torture him, it's more fun that way." "Well you better know what you're doing," Anthrax concluded as he hung up. Then Sid sat and waited.

Tai, Joe and Riley landed on the first planet. Riley, still a bit drunk walked from the grassy side to the dirty side. "Wow, this looks beautiful," Tai said upon seeing the beauty but a huge load of wind knocked him down, "Ouch!" "Tai, you can use coins to heal," Joe said but noticed that Riley had gone missing, "Hey where's Riley? He probably wandered off. Tai, find a way forward while I look for Riley." "Alright," Tai said as Joe went to the planet's underside to find Riley chasing a Starbag. "Cmere ya stupd," Riley was going still using slurred speech, "Ife got sumving t'sey." Joe, frustrated at this tomfoolery, simply kicked the Starbag when it got close to him to release several star bits before dragging Riley back to the grassy side to see Tai gone. "Oh for Pete's sake Tai," Joe groaned, "did you get kidnapped again?" "Hey, Joe! Over here," Tai called out from the next planet, "Try using floaty fluff on the winds to get here! Feel free to spin if you're too low but only 3 times!" Joe did as Tai said; he got some floaty fluff and began to ride it, Riley did the same albeit with difficulty. Before long, those too made it. Then Tai made a new plan, "You did it guys! Now we split up. You can take the left route to the small pear-like planets and I'll go to the question mark planet on the right." "Fair enough," Joe agreed before turning to Riley, "You're coming too!" Joe dragged Riley over to the left path while Tai took the right.

Tai flew over to a small, green planet with tracks of dirt. "Now who made those…" Tai thought when suddenly a spiky helmet popped out of the ground, knocking him down from surprise. He got back up and said, "Well that explains it. Now how do I deal with it?" "Stomp the ground first then get rid of it," Luma instructed from the heart. Tai did as it said and the spiky helmet appeared, revealing and undergrunt. Tai then spun it down, revealing a sling star. It took him to a nearby, much larger, twisted planet with three more undergrunts. "Alright, you want to play tough," Tai taunted the undergrunts, "then let's play whack-a-mole!" Tai did the strategy from before; he stomped the ground and took out the first two but the last one hid back down underground so Tai had to chase it to the other end to take it down. Once that's done, a launch star appeared that took Tai through the centre of the thorny hedge ring planet but just as he passed it, a vine rose out of the ring, grabbed the boy and dragged him inside.

A while later, Tai woke up from K.O. from the vine only to find that he is strapped to a chair in a dark metallic room. The TV near the roof flickered with static that slowly became a flower bud with eye stalks; it was Sid. "G'day you big head mongrel," said the figure on the TV. "Who are you and what do you want," Tai shouted. "Nothing but see you die," Sid replied, "but in a fun way. If you could get the key on the floor and use it on the latches, then perhaps I'll spare you. However there are needles around your head and a blowtorch will get you if you are not quick enough." Sure enough, Tai's head was surrounded by needles, one decent head movement and he could be jabbed. Also, a lit blowtorch slowly approached his face, threatening burns. "Oh and you are timed at five minutes," Sid added, "See ya." Tai was frightened at the prospect of death. Waste five minutes and it's off to the other side. But knowing fear is not the answer to problems as was demonstrate in the Digital World against Etemon, Tai kept his cool face and tried using his foot to drag the key towards him. He then took off his shoes with the feet and picked up the key in his toes. He used the key on one latch freeing the hand there so it could free the other hand. Both hands free, Tai lifted the needle infested head gear off and got out of the chair with 1 minute and forty seconds to spare; he had won the game. That's when Sid come into the room in person and unhappy. He shouted, "You sneaky mongrel," in frustration. Tai laughed at this.

Meanwhile, Joe and Riley were exploring the pear planets, the former badmouthing them for being confusing. "Riley, it's official," Joe said, "we are lost." "How so," Riley asked having sobered up and eating a piranha plant releasing a vine from the ground. This gave Joe an idea but still sceptical, "Maybe we could follow the vines to get out of here or end up nowhere. Let's try it anyway." So the two were traversing the system looking for a launch star that will take them somewhere different. At the last one, they came across a much larger piranha plant that is spiky and really angry. "Oh no," Joe said in fear, "If Gomamon were here this wouldn't be a problem." "Who is that," Riley asked. "It's my digimon from the digital world," Joe answered, "He always kept me happy when I got sad, scared or sick." Soon enough, the spiky piranha plant lunged forward, knocking Joe down. Riley decided to bite it for the heck of it and before long it was torn off and eaten revealing a launch star. They took it to the Puzzle Cube.

Back in the hedge ring, Sid was putting Tai through several gruelling exercises; one involved milk chugging. "Okay whoever finishes this 4 litre bottle and holds it in for an hour wins," Sid described the challenge. They began to drink, Tai was doing it slowly but Sid skulled it all down and sat down on the chair boasting, "Now all I have to do is sit back and watch you fail miserably. There's a bucket over there if you want it." "Uh, okay," Tai said shaking as he drunk until he got up to 2 litres before going a bit green. A few minutes later, Tai got so sick he threw it back up into the bucket causing Sid to laugh hardly. Tai spat some more milk out at the vegetable in retaliation. A while later, Tai had to balance 3 china plates on his head. "Keep these on your head for a minute while standing on the cap," Sid explained referring to a bottle cap on a stick which was on a remote controlled car. Tai reluctantly obeyed and tried his best to balance while Sid fooled around with the controls just for the sake of being a troll. After only 15 seconds, the unpredictable movements caused Tai to fall down and bear more laughing. Then, Tai had to listen to Sid read a very boring story. "Here's a touching story," Sid was going, "Once upon a time, there was a boring village full of boring people living boring lives…" Suddenly, Sid's mobile phone was ringing so he answered it and ignored the story. "What is it master," Sid said to the phone, it was Anthrax being impatient about Tai still being alive, "Hey, didn't we discuss it before? I wanted to fill him with despair so as to make the assassination more satisfying. Look you can't cook bikkies in 5 minutes!" Tai saw that Sid was distracted and that there was no restraint so he took the chance to escape.

Joe and Riley landed at the Puzzle Cube and were astonished by its glory. The side that they landed on had a fountain with a small star bunny next to it. Joe went up to and asked, "Hey do you know where to find a power star around here?" "Sure," replied the star bunny, "but you'll have to catch me first." It then hopped away. Joe chased after it while Riley drank from the fountain. It took the medic-in-training through a lot more of the puzzle cube including but not limited to an actual maze, and a tunnel. In fact, Riley had just decided to go into the tunnel to escape the chilly winds when the star bunny went into his mouth. Weirded out, the whale walked out and spat it out into Joe's hands as the boy caught up. "Well you caught me," said the star bunny, "you deserve this." It gave Joe a power star before continuing, "There is one more past the apples." It hopped away and a launch star appeared in its place. Joe and Riley decided to use it to go to the first of the three apple planets. The first one was red and had flipbugs that led when the duo got there but it flipped over so Joe could kick it away. Then he noticed the tree stumps and said, "He Riley, would you stomp those stumps only I don't want sore feet." Riley did just that on the first stump to release some star bits but another caused a huge worm to emerge and dig into the green apple. "Good gracious," Joe said disgusted, "I don't like worms in the apples." "Look if we want to move forward," Riley said, "we have to keep going, even if it means climbing on worms." Joe reluctantly agreed and he and Riley made their way to the second apple. It had wrigglers on it which when jumped on get angry. Once Riley ate those and stomped on a tree stump the worm re-emerged before digging into the final apple which was also red. This one had rolling boulders which was risky to cross but once Riley collapsed on another tree stump to get the worm to poke its head out, Joe took the chance to use the launch star planning to return for the sleeping whale.

Meanwhile, Tai landed on a dirt planet with a tree and saw a star bunny being chased by a giant undergrunt. So he did the usual strategy, stomp the ground when it emerged then knock it down when vulnerable. Once that's done, Tai went up to the star bunny and said, "Hey what's the matter?" "I was just minding my own business," the bunny answered, "we take that tree for granted but Major Burrows showed up and took it all away. We had to move to the puzzle cube but he cornered me." The star bunny jumped onto the tree causing Tai to turn around and see Major Burrows, the monster he took down, staring down at him and furious. "What did you think you doing touching my tree," he bellowed. "Look, it's not yours," Tai retorted, "It's star bunny property." "I am going to kill you for this," Major Burrows finished as he dug deep underground and began chasing Tai. The boy ran around frantically looking back occasionally to see if Major Burrows emerged. Then he stomped the ground causing the monster to get dizzy allowing Tai to strike its head. That only angered him. Major Burrows turned around and got ready to claw swipe when suddenly he fell to the ground unconscious. It was Sid and he K.O.'d the beast before kicking him over to the other side infested with spiky plants.

"So you thought you could get away so easily," Sid said annoyed, "I can see torture is too easy on you. I might as well kill you here!" The star bunny ran into the burrow to hide. Tai looked fearful at the prospect of death by sword but recklessly, "Come at me bro!" At that, Sid swung his sword at Tai but the boy dodged out of the way. "Crafty little shrimp," Sid said confidently, "but get a load of this!" He armed himself with five more swords for a total of six. "Now we'll see who's laughing!" Tai now had a legitimate reason to run away; six swords are way too dangerous. He ran everywhere he could but Sid always caught up and went in for a stab which Tai always dodged. This went on for a while until Tai got tired and less willing to keep dodging but Sid had not lost any single bit of stamina due to photosynthesis. "And now the final curtain," Sid said as he readied for one more slash but something hit his flower bud head. It was Joe who had thrown a rock and he's cross. "Joe, you have to help me," Tai pleaded. "I don't know who you are," Joe began, "but no-one hurts my friends!" "Really," Sid said sceptically, "you look even weaker. You're null and void." "Are you sure," Joe continued. Soon enough, the gas giant obscured part of Pollux' light in an annular eclipse. The umbra from it engulfed the entire planet putting Sid into darkness, weakening him. Joe took the chance and grabbed one of the dropped swords and pointed it at one of Sid's branches. "Look, no-one kills my friends," said Joe bitterly, "so it's time to cut the wood." Joe swung the sword at Sid's branch but something stopped it. It was none other than Riley. "Riley what are you doing," Joe said coldly, "that thing could have killed Tai." "Look I have a thing for strange astronomical events," Riley explained, "but knowing the state of its species, we should spare it and take it back." The star bunny, now feeling safe, gave the other power star to Riley who continued, "However if it makes you feel happy, we will keep an eye on it in case it tries anything funny." Tai got up and saw the scene. "Wow, thanks Riley," Tai said to Riley in gratitude, "Do you think Sid could be managed right if we going to spare him?" "I sure hope so," Riley replied. So the three went back to the Hubble dragging Sid along against his will.

Why has Riley chosen to spare Sid? Will Sid behave himself? How will Mimi's concert go? Will Leroy be safe so Kari can stop crying? And what is Gasser planning with Agent S? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mention goes to Nintendo for the Star Fox 64 and James Wan for the Saw references (BTW the Saw franchise is for older readers only).


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 13: The Hot Head of Cold Fred

Aboard the mothership, Agent S was minding her own business walking around the hallways. Suddenly, she ran into Gasser, who is ready for a speech. "Okay Agent S," Gasser interrogated the girl guard, "what do you think you are doing?" "What's it to you," Agent S rudely answered, "I was doing my own thing thank you very much." "I see. And I assume you were the one who set Sora free did you not?" "Okay, yes I did. Why is she that important to you?" "The master needs her for not to be discussed reasons and speak of the devil." Anthrax popped up with mixed impressions. "Oh I see you found Agent S, Gasser," Anthrax said, "Your plan had better work. Also I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that Tai is still alive! I would go on and say Sid failed me but that just spoils the good news which is that he's playing spy. From there he will finally kill that boy with no-one else looking. I never actually thought of that one." "Well it's good to hire a weed that actually has a brain," Gasser commented, "Anyway, I have much to do. I'll see you later." Gasser left Anthrax alone.

Meanwhile at the Ghostly Galaxy, Sora had come across a mansion, normally there would be a bridge but all that was there were pull stars. She then saw a purple, giant dragonfly-like figure with what appears to be life support. She approached it and said, "Um excuse me sir, how do I get in the mansion." "Okay, I don't zink you'll find anyzing in zere," the bug said, "but if you stare at ze pull stars, zen maybe you could find somezing meaningful." "Okay, thanks," Sora said as she did as the bug said and used the pull stars to get to the launch star which went to the far back thinking, "_What a weird person. It's probably an alien._" The bug himself, that's Noland, flew inside the mansion for yet-to-be revealed reasons. Anyway, Sora landed on a small planet near a bone pen where she met a large boo with a helmet and glasses. She went up to it and asked, "Um excuse me but do you know where Tai might be?" "I know nil of such person," said the boo, "but I have a power star to give you if you beat me in a race. They do not call me the Spooky Speedster for nothing." Sora accepted so at the count of three, the race began. Sora was absolutely struggling with the power stars because of little experience and countless obstacles but the Spooky Speedster just slid through because of his ghostly ablilities. By the time Sora did finally reach the finish line, the Speedster was already there. "I win," he gloated, "now go away, I want my privacy." Dismayed, Sora went back via a nearby warp pipe where she found Louis just minding his business. Sora slumped on the floor and looked sad. "Stupid ghost," mumbled Sora, "I wanted that star. Now I'll never get it." "I see you raced some sort of boo," Louis said having noticed the girl, "Well you can't win it all." Suddenly a Luma appeared and explained the supreme importance of power stars to the welfare of all. Motivated, Louis confronted the Spooky Speedster. "Mr Ghost," Louis declared, "I demand a rematch!" "Very well," said the Speedster, "I doubt you'd be better." So on the count of three, the rematch started, and this time with Sora riding Louis. Although the Spooky Speedster was simply floating by, Louis flew past faster than a cheep-cheep. Louis made it first securing his victory; this meant the Speedster, a second place, said, "Okay, you're the better flyer. You can have this." Louis won the power star but gave it to Sora as the first link of their blossoming friendship was formed. Then they flew away.

Meanwhile, back at the Hubble, the whole gang was in the library eating steak dinner. "Now this my friends," old Edward started saying, "is my grandson's favourite dish. And I assume you are familiar with it?" Terra, Solana, Luna, Corey and quite a few of the digidestined, most notably Matt and T.K., put their hands up to say yes. But Sid, what does he do, he walks up behind Tai getting ready to stab the boy but fortunately Tai ducked down to pick up a fallen pea just as Sid lunged stabbing the steak instead. "Oh boy, this one's for Riley," Tai said about the pea when he saw Sid's sword, "Um, what are you doing?" "I just wanted to see if the steak is good," Sid made the excuse before noticing the lack of blood, "and I would like to critique this. It shouldn't have been on the barbie for so long." "What, my steak's fine," Matt commented, "but I dare you to make a better one." "Okay I will," Sid accepted the challenge, "Also, where is that flipping bug guy?" "If you are referring to Noland then I can take that question," Izzy said, "he went back to Ghostly Galaxy to return 'The Book of Antidotes to Poisons relating to Fruit. Honestly he should be back by now."

After the dinner, Noland had made his return and everyone greeted him back. But they noticed something that Noland is carrying. It was Leroy all asleep. "Hang on," Terra brought up, "Is that the guy who became the pink Falkor lookalike?" "I you mean Leroy zen yes," Noland answered, "after I returned ze book, I found Leroy in his room. He must have respawned there." Suddenly something occurred to Tai and he said, "Hey Noland! Did you find Sora?" "Who's zat again," Noland asked curiously. "How about I describe her to you: blue pants, yellow tank top, red hair, blue helmet." Noland thought, "_Vait a minute. Zat's ze girl I met before,_" before frowning at his own stupidity and throwing Leroy at the fountain area and punching Vulcanus. "Hey watch where you're throwing that fist," Vulcanus shouted in an irritated mood. "Sorry, I was just angry," Noland apologised. Meanwhile in the fountain, Leroy woke up to see Kari all sad. "What is wrong," said Leroy. "Well, Leroy's gone," Kari sobbed not looking behind her, "the first time I was told, I thought they were joking so I held back my tears and wished he would return. But the second time, I couldn't take it the second time. He was my best friend besides my brother and digimon." "But I'm Leroy," the big monster said, "and well alive." This caused Kari to turn around and catch sight of Leroy. Then her sorrow turned to glee and began to hug Leroy in ecstasy. "Oh my goodness, Leroy you're back for real," she said gleefully, "I missed you so much." As if the good news didn't stop there; Leroy opened his mouth to reveal Salamon who glomped Kari in glee.

Outside, Izzy was working with Riley and Corey over his laptop. "Alright, seeing Corey's wisdom and contribution, I am going to upload Agumon onto him," Izzy explained to Noland, "And Riley being reliable for once gets Gomamon." "Is zis a continuation of your experiment," Noland asked. "Yes it is," Izzy answered, "as for Leroy, it would have taken some additional energy in order to digivolve to a form so powerful, it warranted a sacrifice. In any case, I do not believe he will digivolve again anytime soon." Suddenly Tai and Matt walked up to pick up Corey. "Hey Izzy if your done with Corey, can we have him," Tai asked, "Only me and Matt want to go to another galaxy with him." "Sure, go ahead," Izzy said, "I'm done with him. And besides, I gotta help set up Mimi's special concert. It's for her recovery." So Tai, Matt and Corey went into the bedroom portal and went through to the door to Freezeflame Galaxy.

Freezeflame Galaxy was orbiting Castor, Pollux's supposed twin brother. But unlike Pollux which was an orange giant with a gas giant planet orbiting it, Castor had no known planets but rather it was two white main sequence stars and four red dwarves, all 53.5 light years from Sol. When the party got there, they landed on an icy ring planet. "Hey Matt check this out," Tai said to his friend, "that fiery planet is hogging all the sunlight from the icy planet." "Well you know how it felt," Matt noted, "It must be in an eternal state of sunburn." The two boys giggled at this statement. "Alright, while you two are fooling around," Corey said annoyed, "I'm off to look for meaningful clues." So Corey randomly walked around the ice ring only to find a penguin. "Oh hey," said Corey in astonishment, "you're one of those penguins from Beach Bowl. What are you doing here?" "I'm here for a time out," the little penguin replied, "let's play. Catch me and I'll show you how to travel around here." The little penguin slid away causing Corey to chase after it. Tai and Matt continued to comment on the environment when the latter randomly spotted the penguin and picked it up. "Hey Tai," Matt asked, "Is that one of the penguins from Beach Bowl?" "Actually it is I think," Tai answered, "What's it doing here anyway?" "Well you caught me," the penguin said suddenly surprising both boys, "You can go now." Immediately a launch star appeared when Corey showed up. "What was that all about Mr. Dinosaur," Matt asked Corey. "You know what, never mind," said Corey, "We should probably get going. And please call me Corey." So the three used the launch star to go to the Freezy Peak planet.

The crew landed on top of an icy slide on which they slid down to the mountain's base. The boys laughed from enjoyment. Corey, while finding it amusing, had a more mature mind. "All right that's it," Corey said, "If you're not going to take this seriously, I'm going it alone." Corey left on his own to the other side of a freezing lake by hopping over icebergs. "Oh," Tai said realising what he had done, "Corey must have thought we were being fools." "He needs to liven up a little," Matt responded while picking up a blue flower, "even more serious minded people like myself need to have a bit of fun." He then mindlessly ate the flower. "Uh, Matt," said Tai concerned, "Is that poisonous?" "I was hungry okay," Matt retorted, "Okay, maybe you're right; I'm feeling a bit chilly." "Take it as a blessing in disguise," said Luma before Tai could say anything. The little thing was right; Matt was emitting a blue aura and frosty mist. "That is the influence of the Ice Flower," Luma continued "He now has ice powers." "That is the absolute coolest, Matt," Tai said excitedly. "Well if you say so," Matt said as he noticed some broken pipes losing water from the top, "My guess is that a power star is higher up and I might have an idea."

Meanwhile on top of a second slide, Corey was looking around the area for any power stars when he saw what appears to be a sleeping blue wolf. Of course, Corey knows little of creatures like it due to Ignaria being a dinosaur planet but he tries to examine it anyway. However, as Corey touched it, the wolf got up and started growling immediately. "Woah, woah, woah," Corey said as he backed off from the angry, territorial creature, "Take it easy, I was just curious." "That's what they all say," the wolf suddenly said in a cynical tone, "what do you want?" "I came here for power stars," Corey replied, "It's for Rosalina. She's stranded over Terra." The wolf thought, "_Terra? He had better not have brought any humans,_" so he turned around to see Tai and Matt, both humans, climbing up the mountain, "_He did._" "Oh really," the wolf said in a suspicious tone, "Are you sure it's not for the selfish intentions of humanity?" "What?! No! You have got to be describing Anthrax and his Pollution Squad." "No sir! My race had been observing the human race to see if it is fit for being conquered and seeing how disorganised they are, I feel Terra should be annexed by the Snow Wolf Empire! So says me, Lieutenant Fred. May Spode bless you. Amen. I'm out of here." The wolf called Fred use a teleportation device to teleport elsewhere leaving Corey bewildered. "What a deluded weirdo," Corey said to himself as he thought of the heroic acts of Tai from before, "I might as well rejoin those two and apologise." So Corey slid down the icy slide thinking, "_My goodness was I stupid for rejecting fun time,_" and used his claws to climb up the rock face.

Meanwhile, on the mountain's second floor, Matt was skating on the freezing water taking pride in his new powers while Tai watched. Suddenly, Matt stopped glowing and tripped onto an iceberg. "What just happened," Matt asked as he got up, "Where are all my powers?" "Well maybe it was a timed power up," Tai suggested, "just find another ice flower, that's all." Matt did as Tai said; get another ice flower for another burst of ice power. He quickly saw a way up and quickly got up onto the obstacle course involving bomps and li'l brrrs that were trying to freeze him, of course Tai had to remain close behind because water does not stay frozen forever. Eventually they made it to the top, where the li'l brrrs' master, Baron Brrr resided. "Hey, what are you doing up here," Baron Brrr said. "We came here for a power star," Tai replied. "Silence," Baron Brrr bellowed, "No-one touches my things!" A disgruntled Tai dashed toward the Baron only to fall into the freezing water. "Hahaha," Baron Brrr laughed, "That'll teach you to trespass!" Tai was shivering and trying to stay afloat, luckily Matt came back from a refuel to rescue his friend. "Thanks bud," Tai said in gratitude, "I needed that." "You should sit this out," Matt said putting Tai down onto snowy ground, "I'll take it from here." Matt skated towards Baron Brrr for a showdown. At first the Baron blew cold air which Matt quickly dodged then he tried to crush him. From here, Matt remembered something, "_Those ice blobs from before Tai spun to demobilise. Maybe I could give it try._" So Matt tried the strategy of spinning Baron Brrr. It wasn't as powerful as when Tai did it due to lack of luma power and it made him a bit dizzy but it was enough to strip the Baron of his icy shield so Matt could kick him into the icy water and claim the power star.

A while later, Corey came up exhausted and cold from all the climbing. He saw Tai on the ground and the Baron K. nearby. "What the heck just happened here," Corey asked. "It's a long story involving Tai falling into the water and getting a power star," Matt explained as he revealed the power star. "That's great," Corey said, "Now, I apologise for dissing you but I just forgot about Tai's merits. On an unrelated note, we cannot go anywhere just yet." "Um, why," Tai asked as he took an anti-cold pill and some sunscreen for some reason. "Now allow me to explain the sunscreen," Corey explained, "It's useless here due to a permanent state of umbra but I met this furry blue guy with sharp teeth, pointy ears and snout, four paws and a waggy, bushy tail." "Wait, that's a wolf," Matt commented, "And I should know, I once had a digimon partner called Gabumon who coild digivolve into Garurumon, a wolf-like digimon." "Oh again with the digimon crud," Corey groaned before straightening himself out, "Anyway this wolf guy said degrading comments towards your race. I guess it was racial paranoia but I want you to come to sort him out. Oh, and back to the matter of the sunscreen, I'm guessing the wolf guy is in there." Corey pointed at the Lava Core planet, one that was baked by the Castor system. So the party used a launch star to return to the ice ring to try and get to the lava planet only to find something peculiar. "Oh, geez," Corey shouted as he noticed the ice ring was engulfed by balls of lava, "just follow the remains of the ice and do not touch anything else!" So the party followed the icy pathway dodging the incoming fireballs to reach another launch star which they used to enter the Lava Core planet.

The planet itself is split in two, the fissure in between exposed to Castor's light; that's where the party lands. As soon as they did, Corey began applying sunscreen onto Matt. "Hey, what are you doing," Matt asked in curiosity. "Remember when Tai got sunburnt at Beach Bowl," Corey answered, "It was because Sirius was brighter than Sol. Caster being a binary star is worse so tread with care." After Corey applied sunscreen to himself, the three went along the rocky path to find two torch pedestals near some pillars. "You know, maybe we need to light those," Tai suggested. "Maybe," said Matt, "but the only fire source here is lava and you probably know how impractical it is to carry." "Well thank you Captain Obvious," taunted Tai, "I'm going to go find another way around this." So Tai climbed up a pole to reach a pathway made of broken pillars, some of which sink into the lava if Tai stood on them. Soon enough he reached a stone gate with a red flower in front of it. "This is the Fire Flower," Luma said, "eat it and gain fire powers." "Well if you said so," Tai said as he ate the fire flower and before knew it he was glowing in a red aura and emitting embers. "Wow this is so cool," Tai said as he threw a fireball at the nearby torch to light it, causing the gate to open, "Ha! I knew it. These pedestals open new pathways."

Past the gate is back where he started with Corey and Matt waiting. Tai saw the two pedestals from before and lit them with his fireballs; this caused a flight of stairs to rise from the lava. "Alright, you found the key," said Corey in amazement. "I know but I might need to refuel," Tai said, "I ran out." Anyway, the party went up the stairs to find not much really. "Hey isn't that stone on the ceiling," Matt commented. "Your right," Tai said, "I'm sure if we jump, we could land on it as if it were a floor; I have had personal experience with these things." "I like your strategy," Corey said, "You do know what you are doing." To test Tai's hypothesis, the party jumped but what happened next is not land back on the stairs but flip over due to change in gravity and land on the ceiling; he was right. Up ahead was a wall with four torches. "I think I know what to do here," said Tai as he took another fire flower and use his fire powers to light the torches. While this was going on, Matt was curious about the wolf. "Hey Corey," Matt asked the dinosaur, "Could you tell me more of this wolf guy?" "Of course," Corey replied, "His name was Fred and his race was part of a civilisation advanced enough to colonise a lot of the galaxy from what was implied. He said that his empire would annex Terra, which you know as Earth, because apparently you were deemed an inferior race." Matt looked intimidated by the idea of an alien invasion but he remembered the state of the Earth and said calmly, "Oh really? Well when we find him I say tell him what really happened, that should get his empire to calm down." While this conversation was going, Tai was holding back the red urchins to light the fourth torch and alter the wall into a narrow space. "From here you should wall jump," Luma said. Tai remembered this very thing from playing Super Mario 64 somewhere so he turned around to the others and said, "Hey guys. We should wall jump this thing!" As Tai wall jumped, Corey followed suit with Matt doing the same.

Once the party had dropped to the original floor, they came across a cavern with a frosty cage at the end with a wolf in it, it was Fred. Trouble was, it was to be opened by lighting two torches next to it and between that and the party there was a huge pit of lava with lots of rocky islands. "Well I think I know the drill," said Tai as he went off with replenished fire powers hopping over stones hoping not to fall into the lava. "So what did Fred say about humanity," Matt asked Corey. "He called you lot selfish and disorganised," answered Corey, "That's how he assumed you were an inferior race." "Well that's not nice," Matt said a little bit cross when he noticed Tai struggling to stay on a small rock while li'l cinders were harassing him, "Tai's in trouble! We have got to save him!" "Oh crud," screamed Corey as the two went towards Tai with another fire flower. They confronted the li'l cinders with a 'come at me bro' expression and took on the lot. While Matt was duking them out (he didn't eat the flower, he did fine without against Baron Brrr) but Corey noticed Tai fall over and so caught the boy in his mouth before he could fall in the lava and then laid him down on another rock. "Thanks Corey," Tai said in gratitude, "boy was this an unlucky day; I nearly froze to death and then nearly barbecued." "Alright whatever, I'm sorry for what happened, Corey said, "but you still have a mission to do." So Corey gave Tai another fire flower for one more burst of fire power to light the torches and open Fred's chilly cage. Matt, having beaten all the li'l cinders went after Tai and Corey.

Fred was relaxing and minding his own business when he saw humans and the dinosaur from before and thought, "_Ugh, him again. And he brought humans! Not cool!_" He growled at the instant Tai and Matt went near him, when the refused to back off he resorted to loud barking. The boys shivered in feared but then Corey bravely stepped in and said in a stern tone, "Alright that's enough!" "What? You're siding with those savages," Fred shouted shocked, "I honestly thought you were better than that!" "Look, I have been with these guys long enough to believe, no wait, know that they have at least some sense of virtue." "You know what? I'm gonna have to report this to the Snow Wolf Emperor and have you shot down!" Corey was furious; he has had enough of Fred's prejudiced attitude. "NOW YOU LISTEN HERE YOU POMPOUS FREAKSHOW," Corey screamed, "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF HUMANITY! I MEAN DO YOU EVEN ACKNOWLEGDE THE HARDSHIPS YOUR RACE ENDURED! I MEAN THINK ABOUT IT, ALL THOSE RACES YOU HUNTED DOWN BECAUSE OF THEIR INFERIORITY?! THEY HAD JUST AS MUCH OF A CHANCE TO ADVANCE AS YOU'RES! NOW IT'S BECAUSE OF YOUR IMPERIALISM THAT THEIR POTENTIAL IS WASTED! IF ANYTHING YOU'RE THE SAVAGE, BARBARIC RACE!" Corey calmed down, breathing heavily from his explosive rant, while Fred was all shaky and sorry and ghost white with fear and a tear fell from the poor thing's eye. Tai and Matt stood there sweating from the heat of Corey, the lava and Castor's light. It was a few minutes before Fred finally had the courage to speak up quietly, "If it's any consolation, I will see what merits humans are capable of. Please take me and my power star, I don't want to be shouted at again." "Good," Corey said before turning to the boys, "Let's go. I've had enough of this place." The boys agreed as they, Corey and Fred went back to the Hubble via the usual launch star.

Will Fred recover from Corey's ire? What exactly is the Snow Wolf Empire? Why all this anti-human prejudice? How will Mimi's healing concert go? Will Sid make his move? Where are Sora and Louis going next? What happened to that little penguin? And what plans does Gasser have in mind with Agent S? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mention goes to Maxis for the Spore references.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 14: Horace the Lonely Minotaur

In the mothership, Gasser was talking to a brainwashed Agent S. "Okay, Agent S," said Gasser, "you are under my control now, you will do as I say." "Yes master," said Agent S. "And you are going to kill Taichi Kamiya aka Tai." "Yes, master." "And if you don't, there will be harsh penalties!" "Yes master." "Hey, Gasser what are you doing," asked Anthrax who suddenly walked in. "Hey, since when are allowed to barge in," shouted Gasser, "Never mind. I have brainwashed Agent S to do my bidding. I had to since she released Sora. Also, I have been mapping the Milky Way. There exist strange structures in the galaxy called well 'galaxies' and I have noticed the Tai has been visiting them all in order from closest to Sol." "Well I sure hope you know what you are doing," said Anthrax. "Oh don't worry sir;" said Gasser, "I have also trained Agent S with some powerful fighting techniques. And I know exactly where to put her."

Meanwhile, somewhere in Gusty Garden Galaxy, Sora and Louis were on the starting planet observing the galaxy for more power stars. "Geez Louis," said Sora, "do you mind flying around this place to look for power stars?" "Sure," said Louis, "I can't see why not." Louis flew around the 'galaxy' in search of power stars. However he could not find any on the question mark planets, the maze cube, the three apples or where Major Burrows was fought but he did find one in a region full of bizzare '?' and '!' blocks. However he could not break the crystal so he went back to Sora for help. "Hey, I just went to find a power star," explained Louis, "and that I did. But it is encased in a crystal that I cannot break. Do you mind going there?" "You know Louis," said Sora, "I don't know you much so it is hard to trust you but I'll go there anyway." Sora took the floaty fluff over to the pea pod planet to find it is infested with chain chomps. Luckily she slipped by all of them and reached the disc planets. She found that she could walk on either side and hopped by all three to reach the block planets. "How much further to the power star," Sora said impatiently. "Not much actually," Louis commented, "just follow the path." Sora was going along the blocks to reach an arrow-like switch. She hit it causing the gravity to shift. "Oh, what happened back there," asked Sora as she got up from falling onto a bizarrely placed set of blocks. "I don't know," said Louis, "maybe the switches change the gravity here upside-down or even sideways." "I don't get it," said Sora all confused as she got past some platforms that were moving side to side and then hit another switch which landed her onto a third set of platforms. That's when she encountered turrets shooting cannonballs. Sora cautiously snuck past some of the balls but got struck by one so Louis had to get her and put her near the crystal. "Wow, this looks amazing," said Sora before turning to Louis, "How come you didn't take me here before?" "I was testing you," replied Louis as Sora spun on the crystal breaking it. The power star was free and Sora was now holding onto it. "Well that's that area done," said Sora, "Shall we?" "All right," said Louis as he carried Sora over to the next galaxy.

Meanwhile at the Hubble, an amphitheatre was set up at the front of the space telescope for Mimi's concert. "Hey what's going on here," Fred asked. "Zis my friend is Mimi's ein chance of stardom," Noland explained, "It is rooted on ze healing of her ills related to ze plum juice." "I don't get your accent," said Fred cynically, "also, I cannot believe I have to listen to the voice of an inferior being. It's a long story." Fred looked around the audience to see a balance of humans and other aliens. "_I'm not so sure of these humans,_" Fred thought to himself, "_but the aliens here look intriguing. I'm not even sure which ones the Royal Emperor Cyrus has blacklisted for conquest. Maybe I should just ask._" Fred tried to walk over to Riley for questioning when he bumped into Matt. "Hey, where do you think you're going," asked the blonde boy. "I just want to make friends," Fred quickly said, "And what is up with that steak?" "I saw how badly Corey verbally bashed you," explained Matt, "you looked scared so I decided to give this to you as an apology." "This had better not be laced with poison." "No it isn't." Matt sat down as Fred gleefully ate his steak and thought, "_Hmm, maybe some humans are capable of redemption._"

In the TV room, Kyle was playing Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation with Mimi watching. "You know Mimi," said Kyle as he played, "the character Aeris looks a lot like you." "Oh, she does," said Mimi having noticed this, "the pink dress, the long brown hair, everything!" "Well that aside, are you sure you want to do this," said Kyle concerned, "because you could try for a more androgynous activity like playing games." "Oh yeah," Mimi realised something, "that other day Luna looked sad all because you yelled at her. Care to elaborate?" "I never thought you'd ask given your nature. Never mind I'll tell you." And so Kyle began telling his backstory, "Last year, I was just minding my own beeswax when a really pretty girl entered my life. Her name was Marion and reminds me of you actually. We hung out, play games, ate together, it was great. But then this happened. Anthrax came to steal all of our methane. You see my society ran on garbage methane which is not too different to natural gas. But as Anthrax tried to take it all away from us, we decided to fight that demon. I tried coaxing Marion into joining the army where I worked hence the weapons saying that it was the only way to survive. But what did she do? Nothing! She just sat there doing her stupid nails! She then fell victim to Anthrax's rage and I never saw her again. Oh, and he destroyed my home planet Bellurus. Cut me a break! That's how I became a hermit and why girls need to act tougher because otherwise they'll die." After Kyle had finished his tragic backstory, Mimi broke down in tears and cried, "Oh my goodness! That is the saddest story ever!" "Yes it is," Kyle murmured before lightening up again, "but ever since I came here, I slowly improved. Not too much but having friends and supporters like yourself really raised my spirits over time. However I am rather jealous and ashamed that Noland and Leroy had transformed into stronger forms; Anthrax would have been easy prey then." Mimi calmed down a little bit to say, "Well I can help you become a better person but for now, I have a concert to attend to. Bye!" Mimi left for her big number as Kyle pressed on in his game.

As everyone on the Hubble gathered in their chairs, Mimi came out to applause. "Thank you so much for your greetings," Mimi announced, "As you would probably know, I am doing this concert to celebrate my healing from Riley's plum juice." "Well now you know not to drink it," Riley scolded the girl, "my species however is more resistant to the toxins so there!" The whale stuck his tongue out but Mimi ignored it. "Moving on," she continued, "what I am about to sing to you is called 'I wish' by Ai Maeda. I assume most of you have not heard it but I sang it in the Digital World to help awaken Shogungekomon even though it ended in disaster. Now turn on the music!" The music started playing and Mimi sung into her microphone:

'_**I Wish' by Ai Maeda**_

_Hoshi ni negai wo kaze ni puraido noseta toki,  
>Kyou ga kesenai asu ga mieru yo kitto ne…<em>

_I wish,  
>Doushite koko nu iru no,<br>Oshiete kudasai ima sugu,  
>Mieru mono ga subete ja nai no ne,<em>

_Samusa ni furueru kara ude toosu jaketto,  
>Itsu no ma ni ka sukitoote itte,<br>Kibou ni natteku,_

_Mirai no ame ga hoho wo nuraseba omoidasu,  
>Atsuku nare ano hi ano toki,<em>

_Hoshi ni negai wo kaze ni puraido noseta toki,  
>Kyou ga kesenai asu ga meiru yo kitto ne…<em>

_I wish,  
>Suitchi on shitara,<br>Koi suru koto mo dekiru to,  
>Kinou made wa shinjiteta mirakuru,<em>

_Haato wo utsusu hitomi furimukeba aru kara,  
>Ikiteru koto suteki da yo to,<br>Ima naraba omoeru,_

_Mirai no ame ga machi wo nuraseba omoidasu,  
>Kirameite ano hi ano toki,<em>

_Hoshi ni negai wo kaze ni puraido noseta toki,  
>Hora ne chiisana negai kanau yo kitto ne…<em>

_Mirai no ame ga hoho wo nuraseba omoidasu,  
>atsuku nare ano hi ano toki,<em>

_Hoshi ni negai wo kaze ni puraido noseta toki,  
>Kyou ga kesenai asu ga mieru yo kitto ne…<em>

After the song was over, there was applause all around from both humans and aliens alike, well most of them. "Excellent," exclaimed Noland, "even if ze lyrics are generic." "That was amazing," exclaimed Fred, "for a lesser species." "Un-flipping-toppable," exclaimed Corey. "I am very happy," Leroy called out. "Ah, that was rubbish," Sid said rudely, he was unimpressed. "Um excuse me," Mimi responded harshly, "If you're going to critique my singing then at least be nice about it!" "No way you fat slimy frog-face," Sid retorted and that really did it, Mimi ran off upset. Everyone glared at Sid in disgust. "Not cool man," said Corey. "I am going to blacklist your race as inferior," threatened Fred but Sid took no heed and knocked the snow wolf away. "You can go stick it," retorted Sid. "Oh, you vill pay for zat," shouted Noland as he snipped one of Sid's branches right off with his claw. Everyone was shocked at this but continued to glare at Sid who clutched the stub of his former branch. "You know what," Sid shouted, "you are &#$!" And he ran off to the terrace area. The angry crowd would have gone after the rabid weed but Riley stepped in to stop them. "Okay that's enough," Riley said sternly. "But Sid insulted Mimi and pushed me away," Fred explained, "there is a reason why I blacklisted him!" "Just shut up with your racist comments," Riley retorted, "As much I am appalled at what Sid has done, we cannot hurt him because his race is endangered. I'll explain once Sid had calmed down for a peaceful approach." Everyone returned to their seats, angry at what happened. Tai wanting to do something about it asked Rosalina, "Hey lady, any info on the next pioneer?" "Unfortunately no," said Rosalina, "but I have discovered a new area for you to explore in the bedroom." "Well in that case I will recruit T.K., Terra, Vulcanus, Fred and Matt," Tai continued as he and those he recruited went to the bedroom and entered the portal that went to Dusty Dune Galaxy.

The Dusty Dune Galaxy is a desert region orbiting Aldebaran about 65 light years away. When our party landed, all they could see was sand. "Okay," said Tai, "now what?" "Isn't it obvious," said Terra deadpan, "we follow the stone pathway. That's not hard right?" So the party treks along the stone path until they could see a huge tower in the distance as well as some tornadoes. "Oh, I am so bored," T.K. complained when a piece of paper flew by and he decided to run after it. He followed it into a tornado and was flung up into the air. "Oh no, T.K.," Matt shouted in concern of his little brother's welfare but Fred stopped him. "I am afraid it's pointless now," said Fred grimly, "Your brother is gone." "Hey! I'm okay," T.K. called out from a distance. Fred was flabbergasted but Matt was relieved to see his brother alright and spun into a tornado for a more managed flight. When Matt landed, he saw a warp pipe and called out to the others, "Hey guys! There's a warp pipe over here!" "You serious? Awesome," said Tai as he did the helicopter manoeuvre Matt did for a safe and organised landing but Fred was flung up over due to not really caring. "Terra you can ride me," said Vulcanus to his partner. "Well if you say so," replied Terra as he rode Vulcanus to the tower while the others took the underground caves via the warp pipe.

Underground, Tai, Matt, T.K. and Fred were getting past flowing sand, thwomps, bottomless pits and the occasional goomba. It wasn't long before they noticed a fire flower sitting on a platform. Tai decided to eat it to gain fire powers. "Hey Matt," T.K. asked his older brother, "why is Tai on fire?" "Because T.K., it means he has fire powers," Matt explained, "it lasts for 30 seconds so don't worry." Tai was throwing fire balls at the piranha plants ahead of him and moving forward with the rest following him. Then they had to outrun a boulder a la Indiana Jones before stopping to rest on another platform once Tai's powers had run out. "Wow that was cool," T.K. called out, "Do it again!" "Uh, no," Tai said, "I would have to eat another fire flower which I cannot see anywhere." T.K. hung his head in disappointment when Fred said, "I am not sure where Terra and Vulcan are but when we get in that warp pipe on the roof, we should be near the tower right?" "Yeah I guess so," said Tai. After a while, the four used the sling star to enter the warp pipe and return to the surface right at the base of the tower.

Meanwhile on a flat planet with maze-like flooring, Gasser was explaining to Agent S his plan. "Okay, Agent S," Gasser explained, "you will wait here for Tai to show up." "Who is he and what does he look like," Agent S asked in a monotone voice. "This is what he looks like," said Gasser showing her a picture of Tai, "before Naphtha put him into his cell with that stupid bug Noland, one of the guards took a picture of him to remind Anthrax who we're dealing with; yes, he is that forgetful. Thankfully the guard escaped before the Battlerock disintegrated. Anyway, if you see Tai, the one in the picture, I want you to kill him." "Yes master," responded Agent S. "Very good," said Gasser, "I will leave you to it." Gasser then flew away to a faraway location.

Back at the tower base, the four used a tornado to fly up to the next floor which had two obstacles: the flowing sand threatening to put them in the quicksand and a cluckboom flying overhead. Tai tried to get at it but he could not reach it. Then the cluckboom laid an egg that later exploded. Tai had just about given up but Matt just threw one of the star bits they found in the cave at the bird to immobilise it and then it was dragged off by the flowing sand into the quicksand. Then they climbed the protruding bricks and went around the wall to more tornadoes. While Tai and Matt had more properly used them, T.K. and Fred learned to use them properly as well and they got to the wall jump area with a glass window. Tai went first so that Matt and T.K. would do the same successfully; Fred was having a bit of trouble though. When they made it to the top, the first thing Tai could say was, "Hey look at the view. I would be surprised if someone stayed up here for that." "Uh don't look now but we got beaten," said Matt pointing at Terra and Vulcanus who had already gotten there. "Yeah I rode Vulcanus here," Terra explained, "I am that cool. But I don't know how to open this door." "Uh allow me," said Fred as he pulled out a key, "I sort of found this in an enclave in the tunnel." Terra took the key and used it to open the door to see what appears to be a minotaur.

"Woah, I didn't know you were here," said Terra surprised. "Not to worry partner," said the minotaur, "I heard you coming so I wanted to say hello. My name's Horace by the way. Come on in, I want company." The six did as Horace said and wouldn't you know it the little shack Horace lived in had some marvellous technology. "Holy mackerel," Matt gasped, "I honestly thought you would be poor." "That's what they always say," said Horace mildly offended, "they take one look and then go away." "Well maybe you could try renovation," said T.K., "my mom told me that word when we passed by a shop with workers in it. It would make for a cool house." "Well you know I have always thought of doing that," Horace noted, "in fact where I come from, Luminia, I help rebuild someone else's house in my free time. We live communally, that means we share a lot of our larger things and help others. That does not mean our individuality is non-existent, I came here voluntarily to study Aldebaran as you would like to call it. But what I had for a house was limited for light years so I decided to live with that. Oh well at least now I'm not alone." "That sounds cool," said Tai, "but why all this stuff?" "I have set up cameras all over the Dusty Dune. That way I can observe every last bit of it for the sake of knowledge as well as gifts for when I get home." "Now, I would blacklist you for conquest by my empire for being too kind, but I'm not going to, you are too interesting and maybe industrious." "I'm not sure if I can support your imperialism son," Horace retorted at Fred, "It's kind of scary. We ally instead." "Suit yourself," said Fred, "By the way, you wouldn't know of power stars would you?" "Of course I do," Horace responded, "my race, the minotaurs, are among Rosalina's favourites for our industriousness and friendliness. Why do you ask?" Tai explained everything about his history from when he met Anthrax back on Earth to the present moment. "Oh, Anthrax got you," Horace commented sadly, "that's a shame. Well if you want power stars there's one on that maze planet, one in the glass tower and one near the bullet bill dispensers." "I'll take on the bullet bills," Tai said confidently, "Matt can have the maze with Fred and Terra can go to the tower." That's when he noticed Terra and Vulcanus had disappeared for some reason. "Never mind," said Tai as he, Matt and Fred went to their designated areas while Horace decided to accompany T.K. who would be replacing Terra.

Tai, T.K and Horace were exploring the top surface of one of the UFO-shaped planets when they noticed some skeletons that resembled koopas. "Okay guys don't worry," Tai said confidently, "they are still koopas." So Tai jumped on them all to make them fall apart. T.K. applauded Tai for it but Horace was not impressed. "Hey Horace what's wrong," asked T.K. "Son, what we are dealing with are dry bones," Horace explained as they revived themselves, "they do not stay down forever." "Oh dear," said Tai, "I guess I'll hit that button then." Tai stomped on the blue button on the floor to raise a tower in the middle; T.K. and Horace being lifted by them were saved from being ganged up on when they saw a star fragment at the top. "Hey Tai told me about these," said T.K. having taken notice, "he said that collecting five of them meant the creation of a launch star." "Well, looks like we better get some," Horace declared as he threw a koopa shell at a chest below. He lowered T.K. down to the star chip inside. He then tied a rope around T.K.'s waist for easier access to the chips lower down as Tai stomped on the orange button on the floor to lower the tower for easy access. After that, the trio use the launch star to go to a smaller planet with varying sand levels as they shall be called here. Tai attempted to kick a crab as soon as he got there, only to hurt his foot. "_Um, why don't you try the back,_" said Luma. "Okay I will," said Tai as he kicked the crab's behind to defeat it. "Hey who were you talking to," Horace asked Tai. "Oh, that would be the apricot luma from within my heart," Tai replied. "Fair enough," Horace responded. They then noticed a spiky plant that looked threatening. At high tide, Horace threw one of the coconuts lying on the ground to defeat it and reveal one launch star; at low tide, Tai stomped on several tree stumps to reveal another launch star. "Okay where now," Tai asked. "Well boy, we use the launch stars that we made," Horace explained as he took T.K. to the top launch star and go to a pair of small planets while Tai used the lower launch star to go to the other UFO-like planet with the bullet bills.

Meanwhile over at the snake-like speedy sand planet, Fred was annoying Matt with his misanthropic speeches. "And don't get me started on what your race does to the rainforests," Fred was nagging away. "Oh will you just shut up for once," Matt shouted to shut the snow wolf up, "what sort of beef do you have against humanity anyway?" "Well one of the reasons the Empire blacklisted your race was that you spend more money on wars than windmills," Fred explained. "Will you stop to think that maybe your race did the same thing," Matt retorted, "I'll bet your race was just jealous!" He ran to the other end and used a sling star to access the ring-like speedy sand star leaving Fred to think over his actions. Matt had just about collected all of the blue star chips to generate a chain of pull stars when Fred came back to apologise. "Well I have thought it over," Fred began, "and I came to the conclusion that maybe my race would have been blacklisted by some higher race for being the feral savages I believed your race to be like maybe the Highbreed, I don't know. Look the point is I am sorry, I do not want Corey's rant messing up my mind, okay?" Matt patted Fred and said gladly, "Apology accepted. Now when we get back, I promise to show you how humans can be good but for now we should probably get going." So Matt stared at the pull stars to travel across them, Fred did the same and they came to the round speedy sand planet. There they jumped across the platforms to get to the launch star on the other side to go to the flat maze planet. One of the strangest things they noticed was that via the holes they could easily get to the other side of the planet. They both went past an initial set of tan coloured obstacles to get to the grey side again and continued through the grey coloured obstacles and all the while not realising that they were being watched by Agent S in the centre.

Meanwhile at one of the two smaller planets with the speedy sand, Horace and T.K. were having a bit of trouble with a giant pokey. "Son, you have to go to the other planet for coconuts," shouted Horace on the other side from the pokey. "But why," asked T.K. but all he got was Horace throwing him over to an oasis planet filled with coconuts and cactuars. "Hey, these look like Togemon," T.K. noted, "I sure hope Mimi's all right. Oh well, I'll just take those coconuts for Horace." But the moment he did, the cactuars started to stare at him with an angry look. T.K. had to quickly get as many coconuts to Horace as he could while the cactuars did the 1000 needles trick. He went back to Horace with a few needles as the minotaur was throwing the coconuts at the pokey, defeating it. They then used the launch star to go back the first UFO-like planet but on its other side near a glass tower's base. "Son, what's up the needles," Horace asked the young boy, "did the cactuars get you?" "That's what they were called," said T.K. "Never mind," said Horace, "I'm going in there. Wish me luck." So Horace used the warp pipe to get in but as he did the whole thing began to sink, worrying T.K. As Horace moved up the sinking tower, T.K. used a few nearby coins to heal. Eventually, Horace made it to the top unharmed with the power star and broke out. "Wow that was so cool," T.K. said, "If I was sure I would never see my dad again, you could be a substitute." "Son, it's what I do," said Horace as the two used the launch star to return to the Hubble.

Meanwhile at the second UFO-like planet, Tai was busy luring the bullet bills to the glass domes that contain star bits, a 1up mushroom and a power star. "Wow, I love getting power stars," Tai said proudly, "I should help Matt in case he ran into trouble." So he lured one more bullet bill and decided to ride it to the maze planet. Once there, he noticed Matt was being beaten by a strange figure in pink armour. "Tell me, where is Tai," the figure, Agent S shouted, "I don't have all day!" "Like heck I'm gonna tell you," Matt bravely retorted in spite of bruises, "and even if I did you'll never get there!" "Hey, leave my friend alone," Tai said stepping in. Agent S remembered the picture Gasser showed her so she dropped Matt and confronted Tai. "So, you're the guy Anthrax was talking about," said Agent S while the pillars behind her sink down, "I have been assigned to kill you. You ready?" "Come at me girl," Tai shouted as he and Agent S engaged in a brawl. After a while of this, Fred showed up disappointed. "Oh for Spode's sake Matt," Fred scolded Matt's wounded body, "I cannot believe you couldn't get that star!" "Look I tried, okay," Matt coldly responded, "but that girl got me." Fred turned around to see Agent S and Tai duking it out. "Dude, you have to help me," Tai pleaded, "this girl's too strong." Agent S was just about to deal the finishing blow but Fred pounced on her. The force of the pounce was just enough to knock her out. "Wow Fred, I'm surprised," Matt noted, "and it's not even full moon. Did you do that as revenge for ruining your plan?" "That and I cannot bear to see anyone get hurt," Fred replied, "Not after what you told me. I think we're off to a fresh start." Fred then went up to Matt to lick his face repeatedly like a dog. "Wow, that looks cute," Tai commented. "All right, I'll go back and try again," said Fred as he got off and sprinted to the other side to push the pillars back up for the two digidestined boys to collect the power star. After that they all used a launch star to get back to the Hubble.

How will Fred get along with his new friend Matt? What's Gasser going to do now that Agent S is down? Where has Terra gone? How will Horace cope with Hubble? Will Sid get what he deserves? Will Mimi lighten up again? And where have Sora and Louis gone next? Find out next time on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy?

Special mention goes to Maxis for the Spore and Square Enix for the Final Fantasy references. Also, I would like to credit Ai Maeda for 'I wish'. She sang it, it is not mine. I was simply paying tribute to her. Besides, the song was featured in the actual show anyway (at least the Japanese version).


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 15: Fire and Ice vs Methane

On the mothership, Reactor and Hydros were playing cards; the game was called go fish. "Hey Nukey," Hydros called out, "do you have any fives?" "No I don't," Reactor replied, "Go fish." So Hydros picked another card as Reactor continued, "And please, I don't like the nickname. Now, do you have any eights?" "Aw crud," Hydros cursed as he passed over 2 eights over to reactor before noticing some smoke, "Oh dear, Anthrax is on fire again." "What do you mean by that," Anthrax corrected his crony as he stepped in, "that's obviously Gasser. He immolated himself for some reason." "Oh boy," Reactor mutter as he hit the sprinkler button so turn on the sprinklers and douse the smoke. That's when Gasser came out in a smaller size and was angry. "Do you want to know why I did that," he asked the others furiously, "Agent S failed me! I had to take her away to prison so that we can decide a proper sentence! Now if you need me, I'm off to refuel! I'm confronting Tai myself!" He flew off to another room to recharge, to which Hydros responded, "Shall we discuss how we failed last time?" "Yes we should," Anthrax order, "after Gasser has a go assuming he does lose like you did. He is too determined at this point. When he comes back, he'll tell us exactly what happened and from there we try a new strategy."

Meanwhile at the Freezeflame Galaxy, there was a small rocky planet lying between the ice mountain and lava globe and as such has a hot side and a cold side. Sora just so happened to be on the latter side. "_Brrrr. This is so cold,_" Sora thought to herself as the icy water tide went up, "_What's taking Louis so long?_" As the tide went down, she noticed a little penguin. "Hey little guy," Sora said approaching the penguin, "What are you doing here?" "Time out," the penguin quickly replied, "I was also on that icy ring above us. Too bad it melted from incoming lava so I had to escape to here." "Oh that must stink," Sora said with sympathy when she noticed a wheel on the ground, "Hey what does this do?" She went to the wheel to turn it; as she did it, she noticed part of the wall had gone down to reveal a passageway; that's when Louis flew in. "Sorry I'm late," Louis apologized, "you wouldn't believe the blizzard on that mountain. Thankfully I got this." He showed Sora a power star. "Wow, you're so cool braving that blizzard, "Sora said with awe, "Hey, do you mind taking that penguin home while I go in there?" She was referring to the newly opened passageway. "Alright but don't take too long," said Louis as he flew off with the penguin. So Sora went through the passageway seeming circumnavigating the planet half-way (it's because of geography) to end up on the hot side where the tidal effect also exists. "Oh boy," Sora groaned at the lava, "I should tread carefully here." She carefully hopped over the rubble still over the lava tide until she reached the other side of the gate. There she turned another wheel on the floor to open the gates to reveal a red coloured flower. "Wow, this looks so pretty," she said as her stomach grumbled, "Oh crud, there's nothing to eat here. Well, when in Rome." She then ate a bit of the red flower and wouldn't you know it, she was engulfed in flames. She screamed in fear as she ran back to the cold side and in her panic she was chucking fireballs all over the pace, lighting two torches to reveal a Launch Star before reverting back to normal. "Whew, that was a relief," she sighed before noticing a Launch Star, "Wait, I didn't see that before." You must have been under the influence of the Fire Flower," Louis explained as he came back, "what that does is give you fire powers. And before you ask, there was a penguin ship just nearby; the drop-off was quite quick." "Okay then," Sora said as she used the launch star to go to a suspended pathway made of icy and lava platforms. "Okay, what do I do here," Sora asked Louis. "You see that blue flower," Louis explained, "It's the Ice Flower; it gives you the power to turn water into ice and lava into stone. Try eating it and skating on the platforms. I'll wait for you at the end." "Okay," Sora said as Louis flew away and she ate the Ice Flower to be covered in a bit of frost. Then she skated across the pathway turning lava into rock along the way. There were some parts when she felt that the flowers effects were wearing off but she ended up eating another bit of the flower to continue and eventually grab the power star at the end and land on Louis' back. "Whee," she cried as the powers wore off, "that was fun! Now let's go!" "Okay," Louis said as the two flew off into space.

Meanwhile at the Hubble, Horace, Joeand T.K. were playing Mario Kart Wii on the Nintendo Wii. After Terra won one of the races, the three went into conversation. "Woo! I win," Joe shouted gleefully, "take that, big bull!" "Heh heh, I like the title," Horace said, "but unfortunately there is one other person who has it in my family. His name is Terrence and he is big and scary. Even I'm terrified of him! And he's my big brother." "How nice," Terra noted as he kept thinking about Mimi, "Well, I gotta get going. I am going to sleep." He then went to bed. Then T.K. asked Horace in curiosity, "Hey you said you live communally. How do you do it? My mom said humans couldn't do it." "Well I can't know for sure how you guys work son, what with being critically endangered," Horace replied, "but I'm pretty sure they can do it. By the way, the Minotaur Empire earned territory through diplomacy which is quite an achievement; most empires would war on lesser civilisations like Fred's does. We perform trade at the interplanetary and interstellar scales only though; we had to fit in because everyone else does it." "That's so cool," T.K. cried, "Can I come?" "If I feel like it son," Horace responded, "You'll understand." "Okay," said T.K. as he went to bed leaving Horace to sleep on the couch.

Meanwhile in the bedroom, Fred was lying on the bed waiting anxiously for Matt; you can tell because his tail was wagging leftward. "Oh what is taking Matt so long," Fred wondered as he observed other people in sleeping positions: Riley was on the ground with Joe using him as a pillow, Izzy was in a sleeping bag with Noland laying beside him, Solana and Luna were in sleeping bags, Kari was laying on the back of Leroy and now T.K. has gotten into bed. "Sheesh, even the young kid made it," Fred muttered, "Where is he?" Suddenly, Matt walked in; Fred saw this, got up and happily pounced on him and started licking him; the tail was now wagging rightward. "Hey hey hey, stop that," Matt said assertively yet gladly, "Sorry I kept you waiting, I wanted to check on Mimi and Sid." "Fair enough," Fred said, "I can see your race has made peace with several other aliens, even befriended them. And then I met you all considerate and stuff, maybe I was wrong about you. So, how was it?" "Yeah, Mimi is still crying in the kitchen," Matt said sadly, "But Sid had calmed down a little bit. But I didn't want to wake him up and risk getting stabbed; I'm not Tai." "Hey before you say anything," Fred said, "So what if Tai is the star of the show, you are much more than a sidekick. You are his friend just as I am yours." And speak of the devil, Tai just showed up. "Hey guys," Tai said, "glad to see you making up. So how are Mimi and Sid?" "Yeah that's just it," Matt replied, "Mimi's still sad. Sid appears to have gotten better but I don't really trust him." "Yeah you're right," Tai said, "He did try to mess around with me. But we are getting him to behave himself however hard it is because of what happened." "Do you think he was sent by Anthrax," Matt asked, "Actually, never mind. Let's ask Rosakina for anymore pioneers." "Okay," said Tai as the two boys and Fred went outside to ask Rosalina, "Hey Miss, have you found anymore pioneers? Only that I can't sleep." "Wow, you really are determined to continue the mission," Rosalina commented in surprise, "As for the answer, yes we have. They're in Edasich, otherwise known as Iota Draconis. Unfortunately, Gasser of the Pollution Squad has colonised the moon of its gas giant, Vinchi for natural gas. He must be stopped!" "You can count on us," Tai said proudly as he went to grab Corey while Matt and Fred went over to the bedroom area. They waited a bit until Tai walked in dragging Corey along with him. "Sorry we took so long," Tai said, "Corey was a little difficult to work with if you know what I mean." "Yes, I know what you mean," Corey said angrily, "and no I do not want to do this!" "You have no choice soldier," Fred said cynically, "I came here to take on evil! I even absorbed digimon data courtesy of the nerd." "Wait, you absorbed Gabumon," Matt asked in shock. "Yes I did if that's how it is," said Fred as the lot went into the last portal of the bedroom.

Iota Draconis is a K-type giant star roughly 103 light years away. It has a gas giant planet that I'm calling Vinchi with an Earth-like moon orbiting it. It is surrounded by a petroleum extraction facility, one platform there is where our heroes have landed. "Okay you guys," Tai told his plan, "Matt and I are going in there to confront the ball of gas. You can wait here." "What," Corey said shocked, "You mean I came all the way here just so I can wait!?" "Eh, you'll be back-up," Matt said apathetically as he and Tai jumped past the first puddle of dark matter and made their way to Gasser. "Hey! Get back here," Corey yelled, "I don't even want to be here!" "Let it go Corey," said Fred, "Gasser is not an easy opponent; he is basically a blob of gas. Melee is useless on him." "Then why don't we just go," Corey asked impatiently. "The boys told us to wait here," Fred explained, "I'm fairly confident they'll think of something. If not, then look into that binocular stand." So Corey went to a binocular stand just nearby so he can observe Tai and Matt who so far are doing okay.

Meanwhile at the top of the facility, Gasser was facing the moon of Vinchi B with a megaphone in his mouth. "Greetings people of Vinchi B," he announced loudly with all the people looking scared (they were minotaurs), "I have come to extract your oil and become your king!" As he said that, extremely long drills shot down into the crust of Vinchi B and began sucking up oil. Then Gasser continued, "Now you bow down to me or else you colony is dust!" As all the people watched in horror and submitted themselves, Gasser laughed in satisfaction as a dry bones tried to talk to him. "Hey, what do you want," Gasser shouted to his minion as it explained some details, "Wonderful! Tai has come." He then observed their progress: first they went through an area where gravity not only goes up or down but also sideways but it was pretty short, next they went over platforms sitting on dark matter that was eating away at space, finally they went past another region of gravitational mindscrew which was longer. "Well, I should be able to confront him in 3, 2, 1…" said Gasser right as Tai and Matt showed up. "Hold it right there, Gasser," Tai shouted, "your days are numbered!" "Really? Hah," Gasser cackled, "what else have you got!?" "I'm here too," said Matt, "We will kick your butt!" "Oh boo hoo," Gasser taunted the two, "I'd be so scared if I had a butt to begin with!" He then flew into the boys' faces knocking them out. Once in that state, the dry bones minions tied them up to a pillar with very strong cable. Eventually they woke up. "Hey, what just happened," Tai said woozily as he realized his predicament, "Oh no! Matt get up! We gotta get out of here!" "Uh, what," Matt said tired. "Ha ha ha! You boys suck," Gasser taunted, "that cable is not made of some silly material like rope of iron but rather carbon fibre, which is basically diamond woven into fibres." The boys looked down at the vat of dark matter in fear of their demise knowing that there's no escape. "Also, that pillar is going down into that vat of petroleum and dark matter; you're never going to escape now," Gasser cackled as the boys screamed for help.

Meanwhile at the starting point, Corey was observing what was happening. "Holy crud! What is this," Corey screamed as he saw the boys shouting for help as Gasser cackled evilly, "Fred, I am going!" "What," Fred said in shock, "Why? Aren't you scared of what's ahead of us?" "Fred, you are totally right," said Corey as he observed the obstacles, "and I could just back away now. But you know what? Screw it! Not while my friend's in danger! I am going in even though it could kill me!" Corey proceeded forward but Fred stopped him. "No way," said Fred, "You can't go without me! This is a very dangerous venture. But if it means cooperating to save my best buddy Matt, then consider me your friend. My friends are what matter to me right now!" "All right," Corey shouted as he started to glow orange while the digimon theme began playing, "Corey digivolve to…" His mane grew to cover the whole neck and flared up in firewith the feathers on his arms and tail doing the same. All of the other feathers fell off in favour of golden scales and his form grew and morphed into something more like an allosaurus. "Goldgreymon!" Fred meanwhile was glowing blue as he shouted, "Fred digivolve to…" He grew in size and morphed into something that resembled a gorgonopsid but the coat could not keep up. His skin became silver and the coat was now a mere covering of the back. He also grew a huge horn on his forehead and was gathering some frost. "Silvergarurumon!" After they had transformed, "Corey looked at himself and said in shock, "Holy crud! We're superheroes! Let's do this!" "Okay," said Fred as they ran the course.

Back at the top, Gasser was staring down at Vinchi B while Matt and Tai were being brought down to oblivion. "Well Matt," Tai said, "I guess this is it. Looks like we're done." "Well at least we tried," Matt said, "Here's hoping when the others find out they continue this for us." They held hands and began to brace for the dark matter only for the descent to stop suddenly. Curious at what happened, they looked up to see a huge chunk of ice engulf the machine. "Hey Tai," Matt asked, "Why is Heaven made of ice and God is a wolf-beast?" "I am no god," the figure above said, "I am Silvergarurumon, master of the Moon. I have come to save you!" Silvergarurumon used his mighty strength to pull the machine back up. "Fred? Is that you," Matt asked in shock, "You saved us both!" "Alright, you got me," Silvergarurumon confessed, "Now what about those carbon fibre ropes?" Just then, the lock on the back was suddenly shattered, loosening the rope and freeing the boys. Perplexed, Tai turned around to find another figure and said, "Corey?" "Hah! It's Goldgreymon now," the figure corrected Tai, "master of the Sun and I'm awesome! Hop on then! We gotta stop this loser!" So Tai got up on Goldgreymon's back and Matt got on Silvergarurumon's back. "What," Gasser screamed fearfully shocked, "What is this! That wasn't what I was expecting! Never mind, I will kill you all! I am a blob of gas and you can't stop me!" "Oh really," Silvergarurumon said confidently before shouting, "Moon blaster!" He shot a beam of blue energy at Gasser to condense the evil methane cloud into cold liquid. "You think you have stopped me by making me rain into the dark matter," Gasser taunted from below; he barely jumped out of the way into a tunnel that lead to a smokestack hoping to escape from there. "Oh man, that guy is so stupid," Goldgreymon laughed before shouting, "Supernova!" He shot a flame ball out of his mouth right at the top of the smokestack to get it to flare up; then he used his giant claw to dig into the smokestack to get oxygen in to turn the smoky yellow flame into a clean blue one, causing Gasser to scream in agony. "ARRRRRGH," Gasser screamed, "YOU WIN THIS TIME! BUT I WILL RETURN GOOD AS NEW!" Gasser, now reduced to a tiny cloud had left the scene and the smokestack detonated with the debris landing on a glass sphere, freeing its occupants.

A while later, Goldgreymon and Silvergarurumon had reverted back into Corey and Fred respectively, holding Koromon and Tsunomon. "Wow, you guys just digivolved," Tai exclaimed, "How did you do it?" "Well we were absorbed by these weirdos," Koromon replied. "He's right," Corey carried on, "then I decided to risk my life for you and Fred to do the same for Matt. Courage and friendship made us superheroes, I suppose." Just then, another cloaked figure with a Guy Fawkes mask dropped off an 8 year old boy and a robot bird made from wind turbines. The boy was wearing blue shorts, a light blue shirt and had brown hair and he was also carrying a grand star. "Hi there," said the boy, "thank you for releasing me. I am Skyler and that's Zephyr." "Nice to meet you," said Zephyr the robot bird. Just then, the cloaked figure summoned meteors with volcanoes as the 1812 Overture started playing again. It then summoned a launch star. "Hey, what's that playing," Tsunomon asked. "I don't know what that is," Tai tried to explain, "but it starts playing every time one of these cloaked guys pops up after we free a pioneer and then the whole thing blows up." "I'll explain when we go home," said Skyler, "Let's take that launch star." And so Skyler, Zephyr, Tai, Matt, Corey, Fred, Koromon and Tsunomon took the launch star back to the Hubble as the music hit the crescendo. Then the meteors started exploding with molten lava, covering the whole facility. The continuous eruptions had engulfed the machinery until the ball of lava got so big it exploded into a flash of light. The minotaur people cheered as they were now free and got to see a nice light show as the cloaked figure left.

Once the party had returned to the Hubble, the grand star Skyler was carrying had merged with the telescope to generate even more energy. Zephyr then launched some airborne wind turbines high above the ground to be connected only an insulated cable. The winds generated by the convection from the heated solar dishes drove the turbines, sending electricity down to the Hubble so that the other solar panel that wasn't used began to shift upwards and twist around the top to form the engine portal. "Oh yeah," Tai said happily, "Just one more pioneer and we should take down Anthrax once and for all. Who is it anyway?" "Yeah, I forgot," Skyler said regrettably, "Sorry. Let's just hit it then." "Alright," said the rest as they went to the bedroom to sleep.

What is the secret behind the aliens' digivolutions? How will Skyler cope with the others? Will Mimi cheer up again? Will Sid calm down? What is Anthrax planning now? Where are Sora and Louis going? And who is the final Earth Pioneer? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mention goes to Alan Moore for the V for Vendetta references.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based fiction. Digimon is owned by Bandai, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akiyoshi Hongo while Mario is owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release.

Chapter 16: Mimi and Sid

On the mothership, the Pollution Squad gathered in Anthrax's central sanctum to attend a meeting hosted by Anthrax. "I'm glad that you have all made it to this meeting," said Anthrax, "because you have all failed to destroy that boy!" "It wasn't our fault," Naphtha pleaded, "We didn't anticipate our opposition!" "I truly sucked," said Hydros causing the others to look at him, "What?" "All eyes on me please," Anthrax said, "Now, if your name is not Hydros, state your cause of failure." "Okay, to be honest I did engulf the boy," confessed Naphtha, "But that bug friend of his, Noland, gained electric powers for some reason!" "My weapons were superior to theirs," Reactor confessed, "But for some reason, the pink monster, Leroy, became an impossible-to-beat dragon." "I had the boy and his sidekick tied up to a pole with carbon fibre descending into dark matter," Gasser, having recovered confessed, "But the dinosaur and wolf that tagged along freed them and took me down with fire and ice! Plus they got bigger." "I see," Anthrax said while explaining his theories, "While you guys were getting you butts kicked, I caught someone watching something called 'Digimon Adventure'. I thought I might watch it to look for the boy's weakness, he's Tai by the way and well everyone has to have one, when I came across the show's selling point; the monsters in there 'digivolve' into higher forms to get stronger. I believe that's how you kept failing: the alien tagalongs had the power to digivolve! So here's what I'm going to do. We're going to fight fire with coal fire! Now if you excuse me, I'm going online." Anthrax left the room leaving his cronies puzzled.

Meanwhile, at the Dusty Dune Galaxy, Sora and Louis had entered an old shack on top of an old tower. "We shall rest here Sora," said Louis, "It's rather hot out there. And it doesn't help that this place orbits a red giant. "Yeah, I don't want sunburn," said Sora before noticing a computer nearby, "Hey, a computer! This could be my on chance to access the Digital World!" "What is the Digital World," Louis asked. "Oh, it's an interesting realm within the internet. I went there myself with 6 or 7 other kids. Here, I'll show you!" Sora went on the computer while Louis raided the pantry to fuel up. Eventually, she logged onto the Digital World and faced a familiar pink bird-like digimon. "Hey Sora," said the digimon excitedly, "I missed you! What happened?" "Hi Biyomon," Sora greeted back, "I escaped the clutches of Anthrax with Louis. Feel free to talk to him." "Okay," said Biyomon as Louis went to the monitor, "So, you're Louis. What are you doing here?" "Oh, I'm on the LAM," replied Louis, "Anthrax marked me as a terrorist." "Well I might as well help you here in case you get caught," Biyomon offered assistance, "all the other digimon have given some of their data to make outsiders digivolve. Perhaps I could do the same to you." "Well, if you say so," said Louis as he inserted his toe into the USB port, "Bring it!" Over a few seconds, Biyomon disappeared from the screen as her data flowed into Louis who glowed in a scarlet colour. After that was done, Louis said, "Wow! I feel alive!" He then looked at the monitors, "Hey, I've never seen that pyramid world before!" "What is it," asked Sora. "I don't know," Louis responded, "why don't you check it out?" "Okay," said Sora as she walked outside to find a launch star. She then used it to fly over to the pyramid planet and enter a warp pipe. She remained there for several minutes. In the meanwhile, Louis continued to browse the internet to look up pictures of hens on Google. Eventually, Sora returned with a green power star. "Hey, what took you so long," Louis asked. "Oh the power star I found in there was shattered into 5 pieces," Sora answered, "the sands kept shifting and I was in a maze! And it's green for some reason; they're normally golden!" "Never mind," said Louis, "Let's keep finding your friends." So Sora mounted Louis and they flew in the distance.

Meanwhile at the Hubble, Sid was busy making pancakes, not to eat but because he was bored and didn't want to come out of the kitchen. Suddenly, there was knocking on the door. "What do you want," Sid said loudly. "I just want some water sir," said Skyler from outside, "But I couldn't find any." Sid just stood there thinking about his objective: kill Tai without anyone noticing which was proving to be very difficult to do. Finally he said screw it and opened the door with a glass of water in his leaf hand. Upon facing the boy, Sid began thinking how someone who shares the species name with Skyler could be very threatening. Then he said, "Here's your stupid glass. Now, I'm gonna go for some sunshine; I'm starting to wilt. Go enjoy those pancakes!" Skyler cheered as he went for the pancakes. Sid then made his way to the bedroom where Tai was sleeping. He and Matt were sleeping in the same bed but separated from each other by Corey and Fred. Sid made sure that no-one was around before taking out his sword to slice the head off the unaware boy. But he could only stare at how cute he looked like that. He just couldn't do it. "Argh! Screw this," he screamed as he threw the sword at the wall and waking up everyone in surprise. "Hey, what was that for," Matt asked grumpily. "Okay boys, listen to me," Sid said, "I might as well come clean with you. I was sent here by Anthrax to assassinate Tai! I was just about to do that now but… Ugh! I just couldn't!" "Looks like we have a traitor on our hands," Fred declared, "I will take you out!" "Hey, what the heck's going on in here," shouted Riley as he barged in. "This weed came to kill Tai," Fred answered. "He's absolutely right," Sid admitted, "But I just lost the drive to do it!" "Okay you lot," Riley announced, "Come with me, I have something to say about his race."

A few hours later, everyone gathered at the front area to listen to Riley; last to arrive was Joe who looked distressed. "About time you showed up laddie," Riley said, "Now where's the lass that is Mimi?" "I searched all night," Joe moaned, she's not here! She must have left the Hubble!" "Well, I can't find any new areas nor is she in whatever's been explored before," Riley said as Kari showed up, "Where were you?" "Oh, I just went to free Leroy from the Battlerock ruins," Kari replied, "He got lost and locked up." "I was stupid," Leroy added, "I saw special green star. I went to it but bad guys trapped me. Kari saved me. Green star is special." "Oh, one of the three fabled green stars huh," Riley repeated as Kari put in the Hubble, "Oh, here we go, a new area. And there's Mimi. She must have run off." "This is all your fault you weed," Fred shouted as he pounced on Sid. "Hey, get off me," Sid retaliated. "You two, stop it," Riley shouted to get their attention, "Now as some of you might have caught on, Sid was sent here by Anthrax to assassinate Tai." Everyone gasped at this. "Sit down! Now, he told me that," Riley continued, "He also told me that he did it because he was under the false promise that his own kind, the Great Fly-Trap may be found if he did the job. I told him that Anthrax is not the kind of guy to keep promises." "Guys, it's true," Sid pleaded, "I wanted to see my family again and Anthrax offered to help if I served him. Guess it was all for nothing then. I'm sorry if I have caused you grief. I will find Mimi. Nerdy boy, give me strength!" "Will do," Izzy accepted as he hooked Sid up to his computer to download Palmon into the vegetable. "Now as for what the Greater Fly-Trap is," Riley continued, "It was a plant native to the heavily vegetative world of Viridis. Reactor wanting to look for uranium, over harvested the planet and it imploded; the radiation giving Sid the ability to walk and talk. I can only guess the rest of his kind was affected in the same way and their seeds landed elsewhere. I learnt about this around 30 years ago. Now who wants to join Sid?" "Not me," Tai said, "I still need to rest; it's only fair if someone else had a go." "Zen I'll go," said Noland, "And it's only fair if you join us." So Sid, Noland and Riley wnet to the engine portal to many cheers. In it there were 4 doors, only one, the Gold Leaf Galaxy, was active so they went in that one.

The Gold Leaf Galaxy orbits a red giant star called Alphard lying roughly 177 light years away. It is an almost exact mirror of the Honeyhive Galaxy only instead of spring themed, it is autumn themed. It also has very different planets. Noland, Sid and Riley all landed at the bottom of the slope to be greeted by a bee. "What are you doing here," said the security bee, "What do you want?" "Um, excuse me," Noland said, "You may know me as Noland, I've paid your queen all due respects now zat she has her headquarters to Sol. And don't worry about zese guys, zey do not vant to zreaten your empire." "Very well, Sir Noland of the Wyvernflies," the bee finished, "I bid you adieu." As it flew off, Sid noticed a round woody planet. "Hey guys, a wood ball," Sid laughed as he noticed something, "Hey, is that Mimi?" "Oh goody," Noland cheered, "I'll get her; I can fly over zere." "Uh, yeah I wouldn't recommend that," Sid warned as he pointed at black holes surrounding the planet, "There has to be a way to outrun them." "Vhy don't you figure it out vhile Riley and I go play with cataquacks?" "Wait what," Riley muttered as Noland dragged him away. Then Sid decided to walk around for a bit and climb a plateau to think when he saw a blue triangle. "G'day, what's this," Sid asked himself as he picked it up while piranha plants were biting him, "Oi, buzz off!" He slashed the menaces' stems before jumping down to meet a star bunny. "Greetings weirdo," said the bunny, "Hey, you're from Viridis aren't you?" "Yeah," Sid confirmed, "Why?" "Never mind," said the bunny, "hey, you're looking for blue star bits; you can make pull stars with them and use them to float." "Well, thanks," said Sid as he grabbed a blue star chip from right above before approaching the cliff, "Idiot." He used his swords to climb the cliff to reach an alcove to get the 3rd chip on top of a fountain. Then he jumped down behind the waterfall to meet another star bunny. "Oh, more of you," Sid groaned, "Get lost!" "Hey, I claimed this spot," the bunny retorted. "Keep it then," Sid shouted as he slashed at a nearby box to break it open and claim the 4th chip, "I never needed it anyway!" He then jumped over to the spring on top of the slope with a big tree and hit it to make one more chip fall down. "Hey, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace," cried a bee who just showed up. "Oh, right," Sid apologised, "I'm sorry mate; working with Anthrax got to me. I escaped his delusions though. Don't believe me? After I do my business, I'll help clean your observatory tower." "Yeah, you better," warned the bee as Sid went down the slope to form pull stars and use them to float up to a launch star to speed past the black holes to where Mimi is.

Meanwhile, back over at the cliff, Noland was carrying Riley over to its peak right up to another launch star. "Hey, what's this got to do with cataquacks," Riley moaned. "Vhen I vas a little larva," Noland replied, "my mozer sent me here to play and have fun. I just vanted to relive ze good old days of childhood." "Well, okay," said Riley as he and Noland used the launch star to fly over to the other round planet. "Oh those wrigglers," Riley groaned, "I'm going ape!" He lunged at the wrigglers causing them the get angry and dog-pile him. Noland shoved them out of the way to show Riley the floor with a cataquack symbol on it. "Here's how it goes," Noland explained, "bring a cataquack here and it vill take us the ze next planet! And don't get smart by telling me to fly; ze one true way to play is to let ze cataquacks do zeir business." So Noland waited at the platform for a cataquack to fling him over to the cubic planet. Once that happened, Riley did the same thing and they ended up on the cube planet. "Hey, this place is a lot like the maze planet from Gusty Garden," Riley noted. "Oh, but it is a maze," Noland added, "Cataquacks can't jump so we have to persevere." So they both looked for another cataquack and lured it around the convoluted planet to bounce up to the third, M-shaped planet. "I don't know is this is safe," Riley complained, "There's cataquacks everywhere and this planet is very thin!" "Don't vorry," Noland reassured, "Just follow me." So Riley followed Noland across the thin planet to get to its other end when a cataquack sends them up to the last planet.

Meanwhile, back at the mother ship, Anthrax was busy working on the internet to create an evil digimon to counteract his foes when an undergrunt showed up. "Hey boss," said the grunt, "I have some bad news to tell you!" "Don't interrupt me while I'm setting up my next move," Anthrax shouted in irritation, "What is it!?" "Well for one thing," the undergrunt continued, "Sid has betrayed you." "How," Anthrax asked as the undergrunt played footage captured by spy flies showing Sid refusing to kill Tai at the last minute, "WHAT!" Current footage on Gold Leaf Galaxy showed Sid go after Mimi and Riley and Noland go to the cataquack planets. "Okay, change of plans," Anthrax announced, "capture those two idiots to lure Sid to the top of the tower. One shot is enough to send him into the black holes. Mwahahahaha!" "Okay, whatever you say," said the undergrunt as it left.

Back at the playground planet, Riley was staring at the power star on a floating flower. "Oh boy, Noland," said Riley, "We need that power star! You look more capable at this than me." "I can't," Noland refused as he played with the Jenga tower, "I'm too busy having fun! You figure it out!" "Ugh, I need a drink," Riley groaned as he waddle around to find a bee mushroom. "What the heck is this," Riley asked himself when his stomach gurgled, "Well, there's nothing else to eat here." He ate the mushroom to assume bee form. At first he was surprised at the mutation but then decided to play with it by hovering around. "Hah, see? I told you you'd like it here," Noland said just as Riley accidentally bounced on a cataquack and flew on top of the Jenga tower, "Ooh, lucky. Just hop ze flowers and it vill take you to ze power star." "Okay," Riley said as he used the bee form to hop from one flower to another; his normal form would have fallen through. Eventually, Riley made it to the power star. "Yes! I did it," Riley cheered, "You were right Noland! I did need to enjoy myself. Um, Noland?" Riley looked down to see that Noland had disappeared. "Where did he go," Riley pondered, "Oh well, time to go ba…" Suddenly he got shot in the back by a tranquilizer dart and he fell asleep so that a mole-shaped silhouette could take him away.

Meanwhile, at the first woody planet, Sid carefully approached Mimi. "Hey," Sid began, "I just came to…" "Go away," Mimi barked, "You're mean!" "I've gotten better," Sid defended. "No, you just to bully me again," Mimi sobbed, "Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Sid said sternly as Mimi ran off, "Bugger me! You can't run forever!" So Sid ran after Mimi in hopes that he would capture her. However Mimi was proving to be very difficult and fast. "Hold still," Sid shouted when he noticed a button on the ground, "What the heck does this do?" He stomped on the button making parts of the floor rise up. This caught Mimi off guard and she tripped giving Sid enough time to grab her with his vine arm. "Put me down," Mimi shouted, "No way are you going to hurt me again!" She struggled to release herself but to no avail. Sid just held her there with no intent to hurt her at all. After a few minutes, Mimi got too tired to wriggle much more before saying, "Okay, I give up. Do what you want to me." "Very well then," Sid said, "I just came to say I'm sorry for all the nonsense that happened. You see I was working for Anthrax and…" She screamed and wriggled again until Sid yelled, "SHUT UP! I did so with the promise I'd find my own kind again. But he lied to me so I have now chosen to put him behind me." "You mean you're not going to hurt me," Mimi asked in shock. "No way," Sid responded, "When I called you fat slimy frog-face that time, well, Anthrax made me this way. I did everything he told me and for what? Jack $#!%." "You should swear like that," Mimi scolded. "Look the point is, I am really sorry. I promise I will never be this mean to you or your allies ever again. Heck, I could be your servant for a week. So just treat me now for who I really am: a member of a critically endangered species looking for his own kind." Mimi was crying at this revelation. "All is forgiven then," Mimi cried. "Thank you," said Sid one last time before he started to glow green. He dropped Mimi as music started playing. As Sid shouted, "Sid digivolve to…" four of his smaller vine arms grew humungous, thorny and had ends slamming into the ground. The roots thickened and shattered the pots as they dug into the ground. Finally, the bud head morphed into a huge rose. After the transformation, Sid finished with, "Thornmon," and the music stopped. A while later, Sid, who is now Thornmon looked at himself. "Bloody hell, what's happened to me," he exclaimed in surprise. "Oh, you must have digivolved," Mimi answered, "All I can say is that you are much stronger now." "So you're saying my sudden burst of sincerity made me strong," Thornmon questioned to which Mimi nodded, "O'right!" Suddenly, he heard screams coming from the top of the observatory as rainclouds began to gather. "Oh no," he muttered, "Quick! Grab on!" Mimi did just that as Thornmon leaped at a very high velocity past the black holes and back onto the main planet.

When Thornmon landed, a bunch of bees came over to him in distress and said, "Hey, what are you doing here!? Aw, who are we kidding? Someone has hijacked the observatory tower! We're not scheduled for a rainy day for another week!" "Okay mate," said Thornmon before turning to Mimi, "Hey, you up?" "Well we did hear some distress calls," Mimi commented, "Let's do it!" So Thornmon used his oversized thorny vines to grab onto the observatory and began to climb it. Meanwhile at the top, an undergrunt approached Riley and said angrily, "Well, well. If it isn't Riley. Thanks for defeating our leader! Without him the mole empire would crumble! And your bug friend can stick it!" "Hey, zat's not very nice," Noland retorted. "Um, I think you got it all wrong," Riley noted, "While it's true I beat up several of your colleagues if only because they worked for Anthrax, I do believe it was Sid who took down Major Burrows." "Crud," the undergrunt cursed, "Note to self, investigation before conclusions. Anyway, since you brought up Sid, I have been assigned to execute him for treason and betrayal." "Hey, don't zink you can underestimate Sid," Noland warned, "He has swords." "Maybe," the undergrunt confidently added, "But I have a cannon that can shoot blobs of water so hard that just one will push him into the cosmic abyss! Just you watch!" So the undergrunt entered the motorised cannon to prepare for battle just as Thornmon arrived. "Hahaha, welcome back Sid," the undergrunt taunted, "Tonight you shall be executed on the crime of treason and betrayal! And why are you bigger than usual?" "Well, I digivolved for one thing," Thornmon answered, "Now I am Thornmon. Also, I do not regret abandoning Anthrax. He is nothing but a two faced, back stabbing, lying little…" As Sid blabbered on, the undergrunt had to set the cannon's power to maximum to compensate for his opponent's increased size. Then he fired the shot at Thornmon hoping it would push him off the tower and into the black holes. At first the force of the shot toppled the plant digimon on his back as Mimi held on for her dear life. Then Thornmon lunged back forward slamming the vines on the ground creating a shockwave to knock down the foe and machine. "Ugh, what happened," the undergrunt wondered as it recovered, "Hey, what the heck! You're too strong!" "You bet I am," Thornmon shouted as he aimed one of the vines at the thing, "Thorn gun!" Upon shouting that, thorns were spitting at high speed and frequency shooting the undergrunt back into space before redirecting the shots at the cage holding Riley and Noland and the weather machine to free them and restore the weather. After that, Thornmon reverted back into Sid holding Tanemon and all the bees have gathered to celebrate. "Congratulations stranger," announce the bee, "As a reward for freeing this colony from hostage, we are making you an honorary member of the hive!" "Yay, for Sid," Mimi cheered. "Vell it does sound cliché," Noland noted, "but I zink zat's redemption enough." "And we have a few prizes," Riley said as he showed the lot a pair of power stars, "You should go back and tell the others!" "Hah! I found one too when I was chasing Mimi," Sid laughed as he held up a third power star, "But yeah, we should probably return." So after they said their goodbyes, Noland, Riley, Sid, Mimi and Tanemon all used a launch star to go back to the Hubble to tell the others of such a heroic deed.

How will the others react to such virtuous actions? How would they celebrate? Where are Sora and Louis going next? What is the point of the green power stars? What is Anthrax planning in retaliation to recent events? And who will be the next alien to digivolve? Find out on the next thrilling episode of Super Tai Galaxy!

Special mentions go to Fresh TV for the Total Drama references.


End file.
